Following Jesus Gently: A Disability Perspective
https://share.dropinblog.com/s/qwgk6y
Through this read, I heard a voice that doesn’t seem to struggle with personal worth.
The ‘game’ of society is often played in how we establish value. How do we attain it? Jesus included people that most excluded. It is this Way that we, disabled and non disabled Christians, need to master. If we do not, our citizenry of God’s Kingdom resembles that of a popularity contest held in high schools across America. Only the beautiful, the talented and wealthy have our attention because that is what is mostly desired. Envy is then what runs the body of many churches. While those that ‘have’ give glory to God, honestly that is what they are supposed to do, they then paint a path to success that they took to get there. There are many habits and financial advice that people can follow that can lead to achieving goals. When followed, is faith even necessary?
If given a choice, it is my initial thought, nobody would choose a life of disability. I write that knowing of those who have given up on their physical beauty, riches, or fame/charisma–– because there are truly dark forces at work that they would rather avoid. But there is a difference between purposely losing independent function and having it taken from you, or even just being born with it. And much like, “None of us chose to be born”, at those times when physical/mental/emotional disability finds us, the best my finite mind can come up with is, “Very terrible things happen.”
Even so, every time my family leaves the house and gets into that two ton vehicle filled with flammable liquid to drive speeds mankind only recently has ever achieved, meanwhile trusting that everyone else will follow the prescribed laws to create a safe driving environment, I still pray for their safe return. Amidst that level of tomfoolery, I believe in Jesus who walked on water and calmed the storm. Now, whether we caused the storm or not, how we as God’s people respond is the secret in the sauce. Jesus called it agape love.
I thought this video added good content regarding being anti-fragile (7:20-12:15):
A thought that hasn’t left my mind, but has gotten louder each day is, “No one made God make us.” This could be in response to my previous (Not original) statement of, “None of us chose to be born.”
I’m not really sure what that means, but maybe it points out our worth is not self-made but is inherent in the fact that we were made. God made us and sent Jesus to save us, and because of that we are worth more than we could ever make of ourselves.
It follows then that our worth is not in our power to determine. Health and wealth don’t measure it. Our pursuits and how hard we work for them don’t earn it. I watch artists try to capture “it”, a moment so fleeting but the flame burns so brightly it mocks our desire to be resolute. We want to show God we are worth His affection, but I don’t think we can.
Shoot, if Sadie Winters in all its AI fascination showed me anything, it’s the futility of toiling for self-improvement. This world belongs to AI. In a moment, it mocks all of the artist’s striving. Now there is ‘Rage against the Machine’ even as it hypnotizes, or because it does. I hate it and I love it, because in seconds it creates better than we could here.
Jealousy/Humility? No. It stays here. Because of Jesus, we will transcend.