Being "on The Level"

Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Hebrews 12:13 (NIV)

I've been often asked why this blog is called "on the level". Since this blog has been launched fairly recently, I thought an explanation would be in order. A good way to start the New year perhaps.

This is a blog for Jabez Ministries. Jabez Ministries is, in short, a ministry of pastoral care, spirituality, and disabilities. 

The approach that that Jabez ministries takes is somewhat different than most tend to view disabilities.  

There are two predominate, generalized veiws that are taken towards understanding disabilities. 

One veiw sees disabilities as "not normal". Using this world as a template for "normal" some have decided that a person who has a disability is outside of what is considered  "normal".
Others say that disabilities are just a normal occurence of a normal world. 

Both views state, in short, bad things just happen to good people.

But we are to take Scripture seriously enough then we realize its testimony to us is that we are broken by sin, this world, the whole of created order is broken by sin. Therefore it begs the question of what is truly normal, that is to say, how is normal really defined.

Some may call me simplistic, but I take normal to be the way God has established in the creation of the world. The creation before the fall into sin. Since the fall, the created order is not quite what was intended originally by the one who created it. This is not the "normal" world, free of sin, that God had. Intended.

You might say that the world we now inhabit and exert our influence over is, indeed, abnormal.

In light of this view, bad things are happening because it is the consequence of living as a fallen creation. In an abnormal world, disabilities are normal.

To paraphrase Francis Schaefer, how, knowing this, should we then live? More specifically, both as those of us with disabilities and those who are more abled bodied?

It means this perhaps, if continue to think as the world teaches that disabilties are something abnormal then then standard by which we've established to define what is normal is, theologically speaking, very flawed.

This flaw become apparent when a communty of believers, though having the most Godly of intentions, attempts to "include" persons with disabilties into themselves. This "culture of inclusion" is a popular concept in today's Church. As a system of ethical belief it is broadly applied to any group that is disenfranchised, for our purposes here, it speaks to persons with disabilties who have been marginalised by their faith communties in some way and the community respond sympathetically by finding places where those from the margins can "fit" in or receive an accommodation of some kind that will allow them to occupy a more centralized place.

Some of you are probably saying "What flaw?" 

You would rightly respond that it's the duty of every believer to include others into the body of Christ. No  argument from me.

What then is the "flaw" in the thinking of the culture of inclusion that I'm. Speaking of?

Frankly, the flaw is often subtle. Many times we encounter it with realizing it. We engage it innocently thinking we are doing something good. For someone else.

The flaw I'm speaking of is I thinking inclusively towards persons with disabilities involves some sort of "normalization" of those with disabilties with a standard that says "we are normal, you are not, and the way we are and live is the way you should to the best of your ability" this is based on the flawed understanding that disabilities are abnormal in a normal world.

Scripture so quite clear that we need to strive to see ourselves, all of us, as fallen into sin. This whole creation has fallen with us. Nothing is "normal". Our relationships to our God and to each other are not what they should be. Nor will they be until Our Lord comes again.

Until then we are all "abnormal" as far as God is concerned.

This thought should lead us to the conclusion that we are all disabled by sin and the journeys we take in this life toward our God are difficult, uneven, full of holes, hills, walls, and anything and everything that this world can put up to make getting to love the Father more difficult. These are the "paths" mentioned in the text above.

The Christian's journey, disabled or not, is one of sanctification, becoming holy as God is holy, and that means to learn and discern Gods word and His will for our lives. It also means that the relationship with our neighbors is also involved in our sanctification.

Others before us have discerned Gods word and will and have leveled the pathway for others to walk and their subsequent duty becomes to make the paths level for other sojourners on The Way. What it takes to do this is understanding that we are all on the same "level" to begin with. The path is difficult for all of us, disabled or not, and it needs to be kept level for all to have access to our God.