This morning I have been thinking back over some reading I have been doing lately on Theology and Disability, which is a very interesting topic. It forces one to look at our faith and our beliefs and evaluate them in light of God's presence and desire for relationship with all of us, even with those who are severely limited cognitively (in our modern ideas of cognitive abilities) or significantly disabled. I have discovered some excellent books and am working through them, but I can quickly summarize that for all authors that I have read so far, they point to relationship as the core aspect of faith, relationship with God and relationships with each other. This has long been my understanding of faith and it is my belief that relationships are key to the Kingdom of God, and that which is most valuable to God. However, I also realized that my thinking was relatively limited to my own experience and my own educational and life purpose paradigms, and I had never really spent any time thinking about how my paradigms of faith could be applied to those that we would label severely disabled. I am very grateful for the opportunity to expand my thinking and my understanding of the Lord's heart.
It is clear that the Lord loves us all! Regardless of our abilities, our gifts, our lives, our sin or our present thinking, He loves us. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans 5:8 NIV: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The love of God is previous, it has existed since before the creation of the world (Eph 1:4-6) and is unaffected by our behavior or abilities. His love is our greatest gift and the foundation of our existence.
It is within this context of love that we must understand our life and our own uniqueness. It is also in this context of love that we should view our interactions with each other. One of the authors I read recently talks of our ability to love as being our primary witness to God within us. He describes how this ability and natural propensity to love is the one thing we all possess and are all able to participate in, regardless of our gifts and abilities. It is within this context that our faith must find its meaning and definition. Jesus described it quite simply - we are called to love God (Matt 22:37) and love one another as He loved us (John 13:34).
One of the thing that each of the authors has highlighted is that in coming to Earth, and humbling Himself to being fully man, Jesus completely understands our human weakness and frailty. In fact, in allowing Himself to beaten and crucified, He embraces weakness and brokenness at a level that is completely opposite of what we would think and all-powerful God would ever do. There is something in His brokenness and humility, His being stripped naked and beaten, His own abilities and gifts nailed to the cross that expresses God's love and character like nothing else could.
We like to think of God as all powerful, sitting on His throne, and this is true, but His primary revelation of Himself and His heart is seen in Jesus, in His humility, love, mercy, compassion and brokenness. This is so true that after His resurrection, Jesus still bore the wounds to His Body, symbolizing the depth of His love and His own nature embracing brokenness. We tend to not want to embrace the idea of a wounded God, a broken savior, and yet it was those wounds and brokenness that bought us complete redemption (Isaiah 53). Paul writes the following in his letter to the Philippians 3:10 NIV: "I want to know Christ---yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,..." Paul recognized that in the depth of God's love for us, we find a suffering Christ, and he wanted to know this overwhelming mystery of God's love.
So this morning, I am encouraged to look at my faith, to recognize that there is more that I must understand and embrace, and some of that is found in uncomfortable places of suffering and brokenness. I am encouraged to look to love, to express love and to embrace love for God and love for all as the primary means of communicating my faith. God Loves me, and I am overoyed that is the case. God loves each of us, and that should be my witness in my life, words and actions.
Amen!
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