Just recently I\u2019ve been having some interesting conversations with a friend who is a Jehovah\u2019s Witness. I\u2019ve got to know him through a local voluntary organisation. He told me he had some questions that had been puzzling him. In particular, he said, for a lot of people, having a severely disabled child would be a challenge to their faith and might even undermine it, but in my case it seemed to have strengthened my faith, and he wanted to know why. <\/p>\n
It was a joy to share with him my story of how God broke into my life and revealed Himself and His love to me through the experience of parenting a disabled daughter. He steered the conversation round to some of our theological differences, and I was able to explain to him why I didn\u2019t agree with his faith\u2019s explanation of some of the key Scriptures on which we have a different view. But that wasn\u2019t the really significant part of the conversation. As Leonard Ravenhill once said, \u201cA man with an experience of God is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was thinking about this as I watched a recent episode of DIY SOS, presented by Nick Knowles. In this episode, the family had a son who, like my daughter, was born very prematurely, and, like my daughter, experienced brain damage resulting in quadriparetic cerebral palsy. Their house was not at all suitable either for meeting the family\u2019s needs, or for giving their other non-disabled child some freedom and peace in her life, problems I could readily identify with.<\/p>\n
His mum talked movingly about how they had to go through a process of grieving for the sadness of seeing their son so limited in what he could achieve and experience, but how they then picked themselves up and set about giving him the best life he could have. There was a parallel in this with what Nick Knowles and his team were doing \u2013 assessing all the problems that the home presented, tearing down the parts that didn\u2019t work for the family, and wreaking a lot of destruction before beginning to rebuild and make alterations and extensions to the property. It looked like chaos. But despite the apparent mayhem, there was a carefully-crafted master plan. And as always with this programme, every detail had been thought of, and the plan went far beyond what the family said they needed. The finished result not only met all of the family\u2019s needs, but went far beyond their wildest dreams. <\/p>\n
The reason this programme reminded me of the conversation with my friend was because in many ways that house was a parable of my life and, I\u2019m sure, the lives of many others affected by disability. I had a reasonably happy life; it suited me and I wasn\u2019t looking for more. Then the very premature birth and subsequent battle for life of my tiny daughter was like a demolition crew that came in and dismantled my neat arrangements. In those early days I couldn\u2019t see the master plan. All I knew was that everything around me seemed to be falling apart. The devastating news of the extent of my little girl\u2019s disabilities felt more like an end than a beginning at the time.<\/p>\n
But, as I shared with my friend, this experience proved to be the opening in my world through which God was able to break in with His love and grace. The life I have ended up with, and the depth of relationship with God, has far exceeded the little dreams of domestic bliss that I had before my daughter was born.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure many other people and families affected by disability can tell a similar story \u2013 that through circumstances which seemed crushing at the time, God has worked out a master plan that exceeds our wildest dreams. <\/p>\n
The Psalmist expresses this experience vividly in Psalm 66:<\/p>\n
\u201cFor you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What\u2019s your story of God\u2019s abundance revealed through life\u2019s difficulties? Here at Through the Roof we\u2019d love to hear it. And maybe you too have friends who wonder why your circumstances have not demolished your faith. What an opportunity, to share with them what God has done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just recently I\u2019ve been having some interesting conversations with a friend who is a Jehovah\u2019s Witness. I\u2019ve got to know him through a local voluntary organisation. He told me he had some questions that had been puzzling him. In particular, he said, for a lot of people, having a severely disabled child would be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,33,1,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-blogs","category-blogposts","category-latest-news","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
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