SEE ME (NOT MY DISABILITY)

Disabled people are not there to be pitied, ignored, looked down upon and for Christians they are not there to be cured, cared for or pushed aside.

Hello, I’m Jenna Orchard and at Christian Voice New Zealand we’ve spoken to many members of the church to get their thoughts on the disabled, and who better to go to, the disabled themselves.

On our journey we found God using the disabled in many ways, in worship teams, community care, evangelism and counselling.

In fact, there isn’t a single area in Christian life he isn’t using them.

Unlike us, God doesn’t see them as lesser beings because they have a disability, and nor should we.

But I must tell you, sometimes, we just don’t think.

When talking with one young woman, injured in a car accident, she said she felt ignored as people would speak to the person pushing her chair, and they condescendingly ask her, “Are you alright dear?”

Another said “Often, many Christians would want to pray for her.”

One said she lost most of her friends because they couldn’t cope with the chair.

Yeah, I know, sad right, but this is how they feel, but they refute the assertions they are any less than able bodied people.

Most are disabled through circumstance rather than design, accidents, health, genetics, all beyond their control.

Collectively, the people we spoke to accept their circumstances, in some cases they found it difficult, but it has brought them to an understanding of themselves, I put the question to abled bodied people if they can say that about themselves.

They embraced their circumstances, their physical, their sometime neurological differences as a unique gift from God.

One woman we spoke to said she is constant pain, and every day faces not only the challenge, her disability presents but the barriers to participate in life, at work and in church.

She found herself feeling marginalised at church and she was not alone.

Access into the church, although not an issue today was before building codes changed.

But once inside some agreed that they while they felt invincible other made them feel, well invisible.

When your invisible, it is hard to participate and have your voice heard as one of our people pointed out when they spoke of their church’s priority, the deaf ears her pleas were to the church leadership who at the time were raising funds for the restoration of a church organ, but no funds could be provided to give them wheelchair access to the toilet.

My experiences in church were particularly difficult she said, “I was seen as an object of others’ care and ministry, but people saw my wheelchair before they saw my gifts. I became invisible,unless I was being prayed for healing (by which prayers usually meant my cure) but no one ever asked whether I wanted prayer.

All agreed they didn’t want to be looked after, they wanted the church to change and listen to those like them who had disabilities.

And I must point out, not everyone who has a disability is aided by a device, their disability may be one unseen.

I want to make the point, while people have disabilities, they are strong in their faith and fight every day to fight and overcome all obstacles and barriers but it is God who promises they will and trust in his words where in 1 John 4 it talks about us, all of us as being children of God, in 1 Peter 5 it mentions victory for everyone born of God who overcomes  the world and believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

While some look down and pity the disabled and think they should be saved, look at what God has provided for them.

One woman said she turned her pity party into a ministry and was able to bring two people to the Lord, just by talking about her situation and her faith.

Another wheelchair bound rocks the stage in a mega church and leads their congregation in worship every Sunday.

Another uses their disability to reach out to others in a similar situation to speak into their lives the good news of Jesus Christ.

These are just some of the examples of where the church sees the heart, not the wheelchair, crutch, walking stick, Zimmer frame, or the mental disability, as no different to able bodied members of the congregation.

Look they may have days where they may be like diamonds and others sometimes, they maybe stone’s full of despair anxiety and self-pity, but then don’t you and I, but like all of us we have one thing in common, we are all made in God’s Image.

Disability seen or not, they too are children of God and deserve to be treated this way.

We as a church can make them belong, and not insignificant, we should include them in every aspect of church life not working for them but alongside.

They must no longer be seen as objects of care and charity but recognised as potential leaders, with gifts to offer.

Together, we could transform the Church to look a little more like God’s kingdom than it did before.