Handicaps

Trinity Evangelical Divinty School professor Kevin Vanhoozer writes about caring for his aging mother in an issue of CT magazine:

For nine years now, I have been watching my mother’s identity slowly fade as memories and capacities switch off, one after another, like lights of a house shutting down for the night. Marriage may be a school of sanctification, as Luther said, but caring for aging parents is its grad school, especially when he or she lives with you and suffers from dementia.

It’s been said that as we become older, we become caricatures of ourselves. Dementia speeds the process. It’s easy to see why: With loss of executive cognitive functioning, we’re less prone to monitor what we say and do. We begin to fly on auto-pilot, re-tracing again and again well-trod paths.

What lies under … the social masks we have carefully constructed? What lies under my mother’s happy face? (“I’m fine,” she’d say, even after a fall). I recently discovered the answer.

Years into the dementia, she lost her last line of defense and began to voice her inmost thoughts aloud. “Father, don’t let me fall” accompanied her every shuffling step behind her walker. Initially I thought this terribly sad—clearly, she wasn’t fine but anxious—yet I eventually found it comforting. The Bible depicts life as a walk: Shouldn’t we all be praying to the Lord to help us avoid missteps? Though she had forgotten former friends and neighbors, and large swaths of her own life, she remembered the fatherhood of God.

The Paralympic Games is a celebration of athletic achievement for those with physical disabilities. It has been marred by a growing concern: “classification doping,” (which borrows language used to describe performance enhancing substance abuse). Athletes are misrepresenting the extent of their disabilities to gain an unfair advantage over competitors.

Double amputee Oksana Masters, a prominent Paralympic athlete, believes officials are more interested in maintaining a positive image than addressing the issue. "They want to keep the warm and fuzzy narrative going," she said. "If they knew what's really going on behind closed doors, they'd be shocked."

The Paralympic classification system is designed to place athletes into competitions with others who have similar impairments. While some disabilities are easy to categorize, others are more ambiguous, relying on the judgment of medical classifiers and the integrity of the athletes themselves.

The most infamous Paralympic cheating scandal came at the 2000 Sydney Games, where Spain’s intellectual disability men’s basketball team won the gold medal despite fielding a roster with 10 players who did not have disabilities.

Physician Kevin Kopera, a volunteer in the Paralympic classification system, is cautious about dismissing the issue. "I don't believe anyone can say to what degree misrepresentation exists in parasports," he said. "Any statement in this regard would be speculative. Certainly, to say it doesn't exist would not be realistic. The stakes are too high."

The next time you're signing your name at the DMV or another U.S. Government office, you probably won't notice the black pen in your hand. It, after all, is exactly like the dozens of other black pens you've used in post offices, courthouses, and other buildings throughout your adult life. You certainly won't think there's much of a story behind the unobtrusive implement that, likely as not, is chained to the well-worn desk you've been waiting to stand at.

But like everything, those pens have a story. For over 55 years, those Skilcraft pens have been assembled by blind factory workers in Wisconsin and North Carolina. Each year they make nearly four million pens. The pens must meet rigorous government specifications: to write continuously for a mile, and within temperature swings from 40 below zero to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The standard length of the pen has helped lost Navy pilots navigate by map. Stories say that the pen can be used as a two-inch bomb fuse, or for emergency tracheotomies. It can write upside down. It costs less than 60 cents (when purchased in quantity).

The pen has a rich, fascinating history, woven together with war, peace, postage, bureaucrats, spies, work, and play. And you'd never know it to look at it.

Much like many of us. In every room, every single person has a story, a rich, fascinating history that few of us ever think to ask about. If we did, we'd be floored, astounded. We'd see each other differently, and with more respect. Just like you'll see that pen differently the next time you pick it up.

As a young adult, writer Andrew Leland was diagnosed with a rare disorder that caused him to become blind. In a New Yorker article, he notes that throughout history people have either bullied or coddled visually impaired people. But he gives an example of one school that empowers the blind by challenging them to achieve new heights of independence. Leland writes:

In 2020, I heard about a residential training school called the Colorado Center for the Blind, in Littleton. The C.C.B. is part of the National Federation of the Blind and is staffed almost entirely by blind people. Students live there for several months, wearing eye-covering shades and learning to navigate the world without sight. The N.F.B. takes a radical approach to cultivating blind independence. Students use power saws in a woodshop, take white-water-rafting trips, and go skiing. To graduate, they have to produce professional documents and cook a meal for sixty people.

The most notorious test is the “independent drop”: a student is driven in circles, and then dropped off at a mystery location in Denver, without a smartphone. (Sometimes, advanced students are left in the middle of a park, or the upper level of a parking garage.) Then the student has to find her way back to the Colorado Center, and she is allowed to ask one person one question along the way. A member of an R.P. support group told me, “People come back from those programs loaded for bear”—ready to hunt the big game of blindness. Katie Carmack, a social worker with R.P., told me, of her time there, “It was an epiphany.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

In the same way, our heavenly Father will stretch us by “dropping” us into challenging situations.

Conservatives are not alone in opposing the slippery slope that is the growing trend toward advocating for euthanasia. The liberal periodical The Nation, as well as liberal disability advocates, are raising the alarm as well. The reality is that the lives of Americans with disabilities are being devalued:

Disability is something people are taught to hate and fear. And people with disabilities are frequently not given the resources they need to live or the assistance they need to participate fully in society. The poverty rate for disabled people is more than double that of nondisabled people. Further, the unemployment rate for disabled people is more than double that of nondisabled people. The responsibility for care that is shirked by the state frequently falls on families, who are overwhelmed. Instead of being given the resources they need to thrive, many, if not most, people with disabilities are treated like expensive burdens.

Diane Coleman, the president of Not Dead Yet, has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair and a respirator. She says, “It is not the disabilities that ruin lives. It is the system and society that fails to support disabled people. It’s not religious, nor is it pro-life. It’s about going up against a ‘better dead than disabled mindset.’”

Coleman says medical professionals have devalued her life and others with disabilities. One member of her staff was told by his father that it would have been better if he’d died in the accident that made him a quadriplegic. Coleman said, “Those experiences are so well-known in the community.”

23-year-old Jules Good, assistant director of Not Dead Yet, said of her experience, shared by many others: “When I was 18, I got a pretty rough diagnosis. I was super depressed and attempted suicide. And when I went to my first counseling appointment with a new therapist, I explained my whole deal. And she looked me in the eye and said, ‘Yeah, I’d probably kill myself if I were you.’”

Mike Huddleston was traveling for a training. He had flown from Maryland to San Francisco and needed to get to a rental car agency. But because of a degenerative neuromuscular condition that weakens his muscles, he wouldn't be able to climb the stairs of the shuttle bus. Instead, the car agency sent someone to pick him up.

But as he was walking outside to meet them, he fell. And due to his condition, he couldn't get up. "I remember sitting there in the middle of the sidewalk in front of San Francisco Airport, thinking, 'What in the world am I going to do?'"

"[Then] out of nowhere I heard, 'What can I do to help?'" Huddleston turned his head to see a man in his late thirties standing behind him. "I said, 'Are you kidding?' He said, 'No. What can I do to help you, man?'"

Huddleston described what the man could do to help him get off the ground. Once he got him up, the man fetched Huddleston's baggage, which had rolled a few feet away when he fell. "He asked me if I was good and I said, 'I am because of you. So, thank you very much.' He just said, 'No problem,' and turned and walked away."

This encounter struck Huddleston. Not just because of the man's kindness, but also because of the way he offered that kindness. His unsung hero didn't step in and start helping when he saw Huddleston on the ground. He took a moment to ask Huddleston how he could help.

Different people who need assistance may need it in different ways. So, asking them how you can help them is amazingly helpful. It allows the individual who's in need of assistance to maintain a sense of self, to maybe feel a little less helpless, and maybe even a little less vulnerable.

It's been more than 20 years since Huddleston was helped up, but he continues to think about it to this day. "His willingness to help me — and the compassion he showed in a very challenging situation — for me is something I will never forget."

Editor’s Note: This story is part of the “My Unsung Hero” series on NPR, from the Hidden Brain team, about people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This story sheds new light on the question that Jesus often asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Matt. 20:32; Mark 10:51; Luke 18:41). On reading the accounts, it might seem obvious what the person needed, but now we have better insight into why Jesus would ask this question. It is not only to allow the person to express faith, but to give them a “sense of self.”

Dr. Lisa Iezzoni is a professor of medicine at Harvard. She has done research for 25 years with people who have disabilities, to find out, “What is it like for you to go to a doctor?” She kept hearing stories about doctors’ offices “you can’t get into. Doctors who don’t treat you with respect. Care that is way below standard.”

So, she decided to then ask doctors, “What is it like for you to treat someone with disabilities?” She promised the doctors, “You’ll be anonymous,” and the focus groups were on video, so the doctors couldn’t see that Dr. Iezzoni, who has multiple sclerosis, was sitting in a wheelchair.

The result? Some doctors said their office scales could not accommodate wheelchairs, so they had told patients to go to a supermarket, a grain elevator, a cattle processing plant, or a zoo to be weighed. Some would tell a new patient, “Sorry, the practice is closed.” One specialist said disabled patients take too much time, and they’re a “disruption to clinic flow."

Possible Preaching Angle:

How differently Jesus approaches a person with disabilities (John 9)! He was approachable, empathetic, and affirming.

Many of the world’s greatest souls became their best selves not in spite of but because of their distress. The great hymn writer Cowper wrote hopeful hymns and the great artist Van Gogh brushed epic paintings while contemplating suicide. Charles Spurgeon preached some of his best sermons while depressed. Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Martin Luther King Jr. battled melancholy. The great composer Beethoven went deaf. C.S. Lewis buried his wife after a short, cancer-ridden marriage. Elie Wiesel and Corrie Ten Boom survived the holocaust. Joni Eareckson Tada lost her ability to walk in a tragic accident. John Perkins endured jail, beatings, and death threats from white supremacists.

As grief expert Elizabeth Kubler Ross famously noted, “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known one defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation and sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep love and concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”

While most high school athletes have their family cheering for them on the sidelines, Susan Bergeman’s brother, Jeffrey, is there every step of the way during her 3.1-mile cross country races. For every practice and meet, Susan, 14, runs while pushing Jeffrey, 15, in his wheelchair.

When he was 22 months old, Jeffrey went into sudden cardiac arrest, which led to severe brain damage and a diagnosis of cerebral palsy. It was important to Susan that she find a way to get her brother involved in an activity at their high school, and cross country made sense. She said, "He loves running. I think it helps me get even closer to my brother." When it gets hard running with Jeffrey uphill or over uneven terrain, Susan said she will "push away the pain and focus on him enjoying it.” She added that "hearing everyone screaming and cheering gives me a big adrenaline rush."

You can watch the touching video here.

Noriyuki Morita developed spinal tuberculosis when he was two years old. It was so severe that he was hospitalized for nine years. He was told that he would never walk again, but he eventually learned how to walk again at the age of 11, when a surgeon fused four vertebrae in his spine. As an adult, he gave up his job in engineering and became a stand-up comedian as well as becoming a member of the Groundlings, a Los Angeles improvisational group. He eventually went on to become a very successful actor and was Oscar-nominated for his performance as Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Paul says “In my weakness I find my strength” (2 Cor. 12:7-9). You may have struggled with the circumstances of your life. Try to embrace them. Allow yourself to be shaped by them. Perhaps your weakness will become a unique strength.

Most fans of an animated series enjoy participating in the lore of the show; whether through cosplaying, conventions, T-shirts, or other swag, there is a cost to fandom. For NYU social work student Jennifer Bryant, however, the cost became prohibitive.

That’s because Bryant’s four-year-old son Noah, a fan of the animated franchise SpongeBob Squarepants, used his mom’s smartphone to order a staggering amount of SpongeBob-branded popsicles. The total bill for 51 cases worth (or 918 individual frozen treats) was $2,618.85. Because it’s a perishable food, Amazon said the order was non-refundable.

After hearing about her predicament, one of Bryant’s friends set up a GoFundMe page to get some help paying off the surprise expense that she could not afford. And when word got around about Bryant, a mom of three, working, and going to school full-time, she received an outpouring of financial support.

It seems that people were not only attracted to the humorous novelty of the story, but receptive to the special needs of children on the autism spectrum, as Noah is. Not only did donations meet the initial goal of covering the full cost of the Amazon bill, but almost ten times more.

On the GoFundMe page, Jennifer included this note of gratitude:

Thank you SO much for your mind-blowing generosity and support. We’re so grateful to have made back the $2.618.85 in a mere 24 hours (!!!). As a parent to a child living with Autism Spectrum Disorder, all additional donations will go towards Noah’s education and additional supports. We cannot thank you enough. Truly.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Parents exist to give structure and limits for children to offset their boundless curiosity and enthusiasm. However, even the best parents have moments of trial and struggle. One of the best expressions of Christian community is when members of the body can support parents in their times of need, so that their children can continue to be raised in a healthy manner.

In his novel Remembering, Wendell Berry tells the story of a Kentucky farmer named Andy Catlett. One warm summer evening, Andy and a group of neighbors are helping a younger farmer bring in a harvest of corn. Andy himself mans the corn harvesting machine.

At one point, the machine jams up and ends up drawing Andy’s right hand into its gears. In the confusion of the moment, Andy describes how he felt that he also had given his right hand to the corn harvester. Later, his wife asks him “What have you done to yourself?” With deep shame he replied: “I’ve ruined my hand.” Andy feels defective, and pushes away the very people that could help him heal and rebuild his life.

Andy Catlett eventually shared the shame of his hand injury with his fellow farmer Danny Branch. Berry's novel describes their relationship: “They learned how to work together, the one-handed old man and the two-handed. They know as one what the next move needs to be. They are not swift, but they don’t fumble. 'Between us,' says Danny Branch, 'we’ve got three hands. Everybody needs at least three. Nobody ever needed more.'"

Possible Preaching Angle:

In one way or another, many of us can relate with Andy’s battle with shame. We have our own version of the phrase “I’ve ruined my hand,” our own way of feeling defective, and our own community to hide from.

Genesis 3 tells us that Adam and Eve, after eating the forbidden fruit, “knew that they were naked.” As a result, they hid behind fig leaves to avoid the God who could heal them. But in his grace, God calls them out from their hiding, covers their shame with custom-made clothes, and restores them to community.

In Christ, our shame can be covered by Christ’s glory. We no longer need to keep up appearances, and therefore, no longer need to hide from our community. In fact, our vulnerability becomes a blessing to others.

As he wrapped up his work as the voice of Darth Vader in the 2014 Star Wars film Rogue One, James Earl Jones opened up about his struggles with a speech impediment. Listening to his deep booming voice threatening inept generals of the Empire, you would never realize that the talent for which he is best known is simultaneously a pervasive struggle.

His familiar voice was largely silent in his younger years, a result of a severe stutter. Though he was quiet, a teacher noticed that he enjoyed writing poetry. He told Jones "If you like words that much, James, you ought to be able to say them out loud." To address his stutter, Jones began performing Shakespeare. He shares, "If I hadn't been a stutterer, I would never have been an actor."

Backstage, his script is always within reach. The words, even after seven decades, have remained a career-long struggle. "I mangle a word or two every night because the consonants get into a fight with the vowels."

Interviewer Jamie Wax referenced Jones’ career labeling it "a pursuit of happiness." Jones had this to say:

By taking one step at a time, I've found great treasures. Every step I take ... It's just about being content, that's all. I don't know what the pursuit of happiness is. What do you mean pursuit of happiness? No, contentment. If that doesn't put a glow on your face, nothing really will.

Tony Campolo tells of how he was a counselor at a junior high camp. He said he had never met meaner kids in his life. They focused on an unfortunate kid named Billy who had cerebral palsy. His brain was unable to exercise proper control over his body or speech. The kids called him "spastic." Billy would walk across the grounds of the camp in his disjointed manner, and the others would line up behind him, imitating his every movement. One day Billy asked one of the boys, "Which way is the craft shop?" The other boy twisted grotesquely, pointed a dozen different ways and said, "That way!" How could he be so cruel?

The meanness reached its lowest point when Billy's cabin had been assigned the morning devotions for those 150 kids. The boys voted for Billy to be the speaker. They knew he couldn't do it. They just wanted to get him up there so that they could mock him and laugh. Little Billy got up out of his seat and limped his way to the platform. You could hear the titters of mocking laughter. But that didn't stop the little guy. He took his place behind the rostrum and started to speak. It took him almost ten tortured minutes to say, "Je-sus loves meee! Je-Je-Je-sus loves meee! And I love Je-Je-Jesus." When he finished there was dead silence. I looked, and there were boys trembling and crying all over the place. A revival broke out in that camp and kids turned their lives over to Jesus. A host of boys committed their lives to Christian service.

Campolo wishes he had kept count of how many ministers he has met as he travels across the US who have told him how they gave their lives to Jesus because of the witness of a "spastic" kid named Billy. “If God could use him with all of his limitations, what makes you think that God can't use you to touch the lives other people? If God can transform the lives of people through the likes of little Billy, don't you dare tell me He can't do great things through you.”

One of the most prolific songwriters in the history of Christianity has been Fanny Crosby, who wrote over 9,000 spiritual songs. Crosby was blinded in both eyes at six weeks of age through a medical error. However, she could still visualize the beauty of Christ's blessings, often with more clarity than those who had sight. As a result, it has been noted that in many of her hymns, this visually impaired lady quite amazingly spoke about sight, as seen in the following examples.

“Visions of rapture now burst on my sight” (Blessed Assurance)

“Watching and waiting, looking above” (Blessed Assurance)

“Near the cross I'll watch and wait, hoping, trusting ever” (In the Cross)

“But purer and higher and greater will be, our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.” (To God be the Glory)

Possible Preaching Angle: Even as we receive spiritual insight through the lyrics of a lady with no vision, may we too, get a new vision of the glories of Christ! "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith ..." (Hebrews 12:2)

Alexa Bjornson and her son Landon had made the plane trip several times, from Las Vegas to Portland to visit Landon’s father. It had become an annual tradition. But this time, Bjornson was sending Landon to fly solo … and she was nervous.

Alexa knows that Landon, who is on the autistic spectrum, could sometimes be perceived as an annoyance from other travelers. So, she sent Landon with a goodwill gesture – a note asking for kindness toward her son, $10 for any potential inconvenience, and her cell phone number.

After the flight touched down in Portland, Bjornson received a text message from Landon’s seatmate, passenger Ben Pedraza. "I was Landon's seat neighbor for his flight to Portland," Pedraza wrote to Bjornson, along with a selfie of himself posing with Landon. "He did ask if we were there yet several times but he was a great travel buddy. He's a great kid and you're a lucky mom." Pedraza also told Bjornson that he would be donating the $10 to Autism-Society.org, in honor of Landon.

“I was so relieved,” said Bjornson, in a Facebook post that was shared over 130,000 times. "There are good humans on the planet that make him feel like it's OK to be himself and not make him feel like an annoyance." While in Oregon, Bjornson said that Landon and his dad planned to share a meal with Pedraza and his family.

Preaching angles: The true measure of our discipleship is not how well we do in times of comfort and convenience, but in times of discomfort and inconvenience. Even small acts of kindness can radiate outward when done with a sincere heart and a desire for connection.

There are 290 species of pigeons in the world, but only one has adapted to live in cities. But that one species has an amazing skill—the ability to carry an important message and then to find its way home. Recent studies have suggested that they navigate using human structures as well as natural ones: they follow roads and canals, and have been observed going round roundabouts before taking the appropriate exit. They can fly extremely fast—up to 110 miles per hour—and can cover 700 miles in a single uninterrupted flight. There are faster birds, but none can fly horizontally, under its own power, as quickly as a pigeon.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries they became important as messenger birds. During the Siege of Paris in 1870, pigeons were taken out of the city by balloon and returned carrying thousands of letters stored on microfilm and sewn into their tail feathers. During the First World War, soldiers at the front used pigeons to communicate with those behind the lines and with tank commanders when their radios failed. In the Second World War, most bomber crews carried a pair of birds in a specially designed floating cage. If they were shot down they would release a pigeon bearing a message detailing their position.

Major General Fowler, the British army’s chief of signals and communications wrote, “If it became necessary immediately to discard every line and method of communications used on the front, except one, I should unhesitatingly choose the pigeons. When the battle rages and everything gives way to barrage, machine gun fire … gas attacks and bombings, it is to the pigeon that we go.”

Possible Preaching Angles: In the same way, as a follower of Jesus, you do not need to be the fastest or most amazing witness for Christ. But we are called to be faithful and reliable to carry the message of Christ to others.

In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Batman assembles a team of super-champions to take on a rising tide of super-villains. An ancient entity named Steppenwolf is leading an army in a hunt for a weapon powerful enough to destroy the planet. Humanity needs a team of heroes.

The film’s world of CGI heroics and villainy is humanized when high school student Barry Allen is invited to join the league. Initially, Allen (aka Flash) is super-excited to be in a super-hero league. It is always more exciting to “be” than it is to “do.” But when it comes time to do what superheroes do (i.e. save people), the Flash finds himself paralyzed with uncertainty. Preparing to take on the evil Steppenwolf, the Flash tries to explain his emotional struggle to Batman:

Here’s the thing. See, I’m afraid of bugs, and guns, and obnoxiously tall people. I can’t be here! It’s really cool you guys seem ready to do battle and stuff, but I’ve never done battle. I’ve just pushed some people and run away!”

Batman brings clarity to fear with two simple words:

Batman: “Save one.”
The Flash: What?
Batman: Save one person.
The Flash: Which one?
Batman: Don’t talk. Don’t fight. Get in. Get one out.
The Flash: And then?
Batman: You’ll know.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Big tasks are commonly accompanied by big doubts. We need God’s power in our weakness. (2) Sometimes Jesus doesn’t ask us to do big, heroic deeds. He merely calls us to do the small deeds of kindness right in front of us.

In 2000, two parents founded a pizzeria in Rome with the goal of employing people with Down syndrome. Inspired by their son, who had the condition, they named it La Locanda dei Girasoli (translated as “The Sunflower Inn”).

Today, the restaurant employs eight differently-abled people (five with Down syndrome) and boasts a 4.5-star review on TripAdvisor, making it a destination of sorts. According to their website, the restaurant’s goal is to “promote the employment of people with Down syndrome, ennobling and giving dignity to the individual through a path to training and work placement.” Learn more about their story below:

With the abortion rate of those with Down syndrome now edging 90 percent, modern society has increasingly adopted a distorted view of those who are differently-abled. To counter the popular prejudices and misconceptions, the restaurant also seeks to further “mutuality, solidarity, and respect” for those with Down syndrome.

“The initial reaction of customers is often curiosity and even hesitation,” explains Ugo Menghini, one of the restaurant’s managers. “At first they’re surprised. Then they’re interested. Not only do they see that our workers are great at getting the job done. They see a human side to the restaurant that makes people happy. They have a friendly exchange with us so there’s always a pleasant dynamic.”

It’s a beautiful display of the transformative power of business and the abundance bound up in all people, regardless of their background or physical condition. Entrepreneurs, business owners, and managers would do well to heed these stories and respond in turn. What we commonly label as a “disability” may very well be the exact opposite.

When given the chance and investment, the differently-abled are bound to surprise us and contribute to our economic future in new and profound ways.

Two sheriff’s deputies thought they were responding to a routine call, but when they arrived, the situation required more than what they’d initially thought.

The call mentioned a traffic hazard in the middle of the road, in the form of a wheelchair. When the deputies arrived on the scene, they did indeed find a wheelchair—and an elderly woman inside of it. The battery in her electric wheelchair was dead, leaving her without power to even finish crossing the road.

They initially offered her a ride, but the wheelchair was too heavy to fit inside their patrol cruiser, and its battery pack meant that folding it up was a non-starter. The only thing left to do was to offer to push her chair the mile long journey home. Which is exactly what Deputy Montanez did, while his partner Deputy Chapman followed closely behind.

In the dashcam footage of the event, Chapman is heard teasing his partner. “You can pick it up, you’re only going like one mile an hour.”

Potential Preaching Angle: If we cannot extend ourselves for others, we are incapable of expressing God's heart for our neighbors and other members of our community.