Joni Eareckson Tada is one of the most famous handicapped persons
in the Christian world. She tells of a girl she knows named Betty who cannot
speak, cannot walk, and cannot feed or dress herself. She has no control over
her bowels or bladder, and needs constant care. She often wakes in the night
with screams for help. At first you might jump to the conclusion that this is
another hell on earth story. But in fact, nobody even feels bad for Betty, and
the reason is that she is an 8 month old baby. This is Joni's clever way of
getting us to realize that at one point we were all severely mentally and
physically handicapped. We have all been so handicapped that we would
die in a short time without loving care. Every mother and father are in the
business of helping the handicapped, for all normal babies are just as
handicapped as those who are not normal. Everyone of us is alive today
because of the helpers of the handicapped.
We do grow out of many of our early handicaps and become somewhat
independent, but we are never totally free of handicaps. Most people cannot
do all that they dream and wish they could. There are so many limitations of
time, talent, and treasure. Mrs. Sarah Ophelia Calley Connors set out to be
actress on Broadway. It did not work out and she had to choose second best.
She became a comedian whom we all know as Minnie Pearl. She had this
philosophy about it: "Success is not always getting what you originally
thought you wanted. To me, successful people are the ones who leveled with
themselves. They were able to realize that in a lot of cases, second best is
every bit as good as first choice. We must realize that many times our plan is
not God's plan."
One of the most famous handicapped people in Minnesota history
illustrates this. Michael J. Dowling was 14 years old when he sat on a soap
box in the back of a wagon with two men up front. They left Canby,
Minnesota and were out on the prairie when a blizzard stuck. The wagon hit
plowed ground and he was jolted off the back. He yelled at the top of his
voice, but the men did not hear him. He tried to follow the wagon, but the
snow soon obliterated the tracks. He stumbled blindly and finally found a
straw pile, and he dug his way in. He survived until the morning, and then
found his way to a farm house where the doctor was called. He had to have
both his legs amputated 6 inches below the knees. His left arm was taken off
below the elbow, and all his fingers and part of his thumb on the right hand.
You would think that meaningful life would be over for this poor young
victim of a tragic accident, but not so. He got artificial limbs, went to
Carlton College, became a teacher, then became a principal, and then a
banker, then a newspaper man, and finally a politician. He was once
mentioned as a candidate for governor of Minnesota. He was sent as a
member of a Commission to the Philippines where he had to help get the
attention of the Sultan to impress him with the importance of education. The
Sultan was bored by the Americans and had a hard time staying awake until
Michael took off his left leg and threw it on the floor. Then he removed both
feet and tossed them down before the astonished ruler. He was captivated
and gave full attention to what they had to say.
Dowling turned his handicap into an asset, and he proved that second
best can be ever bit as good, if not better, than first choice. The
handicapped are often just like everyone else. They just need help to figure
out how to use their handicap in an effective way. Our text is a whole
chapter about a handicapped son of Jonathan. It was bad enough that he
was lame, but to add to his burden he had one of the most unpronounceable
names in the Bible. Don't look for it in your little book of 300 names for your
new baby because the name Mephibosheth just never caught on, and never
became popular, even though it is a biblical name.
The handicapped compel the mind to ask why? Why should anyone have
to be deprived of the mental or physical abilities that are considered normal
for the human race? In the case of Mephibosheth the Bible tells us clearly.
He was handicapped by an accident. We read of it in II Sam. 4:4. When he
was 5 years old the news came that his father and his grandfather, who was
Saul, had been killed in battle. His nurse grabbed him and ran. In her
haste she dropped him and he became a cripple. He was the victim of a
human mistake. A person who loved him and cared for him was trying to
save his life, but in her panic to do good she did harm, and he ended up
handicapped for life.
It happens every day as the handicapped population grows due to the
accidents of life. Even those born handicapped have their defects due to
accidents. The things that are suppose to happen in developing a child do
not happen, and so the child is born with defects. These accidents are the
result of a fallen world where nothing is free from Murphy's Law. Nothing
is perfect the way God made it, and the result is something can go wrong
with anything, and that includes the way babies are made.
We know that a mother can take drugs and produce an abnormal baby
because of it. Handicapped children are born by the thousands due to
chemical accidents. No mother deliberately does it, but she does not know
the consequences of her behavior, and so she takes drugs that interfere with
the process that produces a normal child. In other cases there is no external
cause, but an internal defect in the mother or father that causes the child to
be handicapped.
The point is, neither God nor man is in the business of producing
handicapped children. They are not the result of anyone's will, but they are
the product of a monkey wrench in the works. Anyone who thinks all
accidents are the will of God have rejected the fall of man and the resulting
fall of nature. If all accidents are God's will then we must conclude that God
is still saying what He did after creating this wondrous world. He said that
it is very good, and if all accidents are His will then all is still very good. No
one can honestly believe that the world is still very good and so the wiser way
to think is to recognize that all is not good, and the world is full of things that
are not ideal and not a part of God's will. In a perfect world a nurse would
not drop a little child and injure it for life, but such a world does not exist
for us as humans, at least not yet.
The number one answer for the question, why are persons handicapped,
is that they are the result of accidents. It may be before birth, during birth,
or after birth, for there are no end to the things that can go wrong in a fallen
world. They happen to God's people just as they do to the world. There is
not now, nor has there ever been, a group of God's people who did not have
handicapped children. Every problem in the book happens to God's people,
and even to those whom He chose to be His priestly people. It was sad
indeed for the descendents of Aaron to have a child with any defect, for the
law demanded that all who approached the altar in the temple be free of all
abnormalities. Not only was the sacrifice to be as perfect as possible, but so
was the sacrificer. Any handicap meant a child could never be a priest even
though that was his destiny by being a descendent of Aaron.
To even suggest that God deliberately made children born in the priestly
line handicapped is to make God very cruel, for he forbid them to ever
function in their family tasks. Listen to this clear passage where the
handicapped are severely restricted. They are not rejected as people, but
they are free to eat the most holy food and be one with the family of God, but
they are not allowed to ever offer the sacrifice as a priest.
Lev. 21:16-23 says, "The Lord said to Moses, "I say to Aaron: For the
generations to come none of your descendants who have a defect may come
near to offer the food of his God. No man who has any defect may come
near: No man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a
crippled foot or hand, or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any
eye defect, or who has any festering or running sores or damaged testicles.
No descendent of Aaron the priest who has defect is to come near to present
the offerings made to the Lord by fire. He has a defect; he must not come
near to offer the food of his God. He may eat the most holy food of his God
as well as the holy food; yet because of his defect, he must not go near the
curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the
Lord, who makes them holy."
God did not will these children to be born with these defects. They
happened to the priestly families for the same reason they happen to anyone
else, and that is the accidents that we have mentioned due to defects in the
genes and environmental problems. Joni Eareckson Toda said that there are
516 million people in our world with disabilities. She is one due to a diving
accident, and she has plenty of company. She tells of the many paraplegics
in Bangladesh who are young men who have injured their spinal cord by
falling out of palm trees while cutting coconuts. All over the world she finds
the victims of this fallen world, and she starts ministries for them.
She ended a conference in Manila with these words: "No other ministry
better demonstrates Christ's heart of compassion than ministries to people
with disabilities. Those who are helpless, no matter what their handicap, see
themselves in the Man of Sorrows because He became one of them. Jesus'
message was clear. We are without help or hope as long as we are without
Him. But He was also clear that His good news was, in some way, especially
for those who suffer the helplessness and hopelessness that physical infirmity
can often bring."
God in His sovereignty uses accidents and handicaps to change lives for
good, but it does not mean that He wills everything, for then He would be the
author of evil. What it does mean is that He can use everything, and even
bring good out of evil. This is what He is ever doing in the realm of
accidents and the resulting handicaps. It is part of the fallen world, but
where people choose to seek His guidance there can be blessings for time and
eternity that come out of the burden of being handicapped.
Sir Walter Scott and Byron were both lame, but Byron loathed it and
brooded over it. He was a bitter man because of being handicapped. Scott,
on the other hand, never complained of his disability. He accepted it and
coped with it. It is no wonder that Byron wrote to him once and said, "Ah
Scott, I would give all my fame to have your happiness." A bitter spirit is
worse than any mental or physical handicap. Most all handicapped people
face this temptation to become bitter, but those who overcome it discover
they can be as happy as anyone else if they maintain a positive attitude. Joni
went through the pits and wanted to take her own life because she was so
bitter, but by the grace of God she came out of that pit and has brought
happiness to multitudes.
The great battle of most handicapped people is the battle with a low
self-image and a sense of inferiority. Most non-handicapped people struggle
with this as well, and so why should they not do so when their problem is
often so conspicuous? Mephibosheth had this battle. We see it in verse 8
where he says to David, "What is your servant, that you should notice a dead
dog like me?" Talk about a low self-image. He was on the bottom and felt
as worthless as a dead dog, and not just a lame dog, a sick dog, or a mere
mangy mongrel.
This is a common problem of the handicap, but one that is very serious.
If this low self-image is allowed to persist it leads to a loss of all their
potential because they just give up. Mephibosheth had two bad feet and that
eliminated him from a lot of normal activity, but he still had two good hands
and arms and a good mind. He had great potential beyond any living dog let
alone a dead dog. We have no idea of what he did with what he had, but we
know of people with similar handicaps who have built careers in business,
music, art, and even sports. Many famous people have been handicapped.
Milton was blind; Beethoven was deaf, and Helen Keller was blind and deaf,
just to name a few.
At the age of 19 Stan Musial was playing center field for the Daytona
Beach Islanders. He caught a fly ball at his feet and took a somersault. It
damaged his body so that it almost ended his career in baseball. His dream
was to be a pitcher, but the pain in this shoulders made that impossible.
Branch Rickey of the Cardinals recognized in him a great hitter, and so he
took him on. As a handicapped player Musial went on to lead the national
league in batting 7 times. He could not pitch, but he could still hit, and he
became famous for it. He illustrates that a handicap does not necessarily
limited a person in all areas of life.
Sometimes a handicapped does not even limit a person in areas that it
should if they have enough determination. Peter Gray tried to hop a train
when he was 6 years old. I know the danger for I was that age when I use to
do it, and I know it is easy for your leg to slip as you jump for the ladder.
Pete did slip and lost his right arm. He had to learn all over to use his left
arm for everything. He loved baseball and refused to quite just because of a
missing arm. He got so good that he worked his way up to the professionals.
In 1944 he was the best player in the Southern Association. A one arm
player in the major leagues is rare, for most two arm players never make it.
Here is an example of how handicapped people can even be superior to those
who have no such handicap. He had the choice to be bitter and be a quitter,
but he chose instead to be determined to be excellent in spite of his handicap.
Life has more handicaps than we usually think. All of us are
handicapped in some way just because all people have limitations. Youth
feel bad because they can't do what adults do. They have to wait to drive
and it drives them crazy. On the other hand being older has its limitations
too. Older people can no longer enjoy all the new slides in the modern park.
The older you get the more you are limited, and to be middle aged can be
just as bad. You are too old to get the free kids meal and too young to get
the senior citizen's discount. It is a handicap just to be the age you are
whatever that age is.
Some people get bitter about being young or old, or in between. You can
be bitter about any of life's limitations and become a spiritual handicapped
person. But on the other hand, you can be spiritually mature if you learn to
accept any and all limitations and use them to the glory of God. Booker T.
Washington use to say all the time the phrase, "The advantages of
disadvantages." They can stimulate, motivate, and cause people to rise
above them and develop a spirit that is truly beautiful and pleasing to God.
This is success on the highest level. Joni and many others have come to the
point where they can identify with the words of Helen Keller: "I thank God
for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work, and my
God."
Harold Russell had his hands blown off by a blast of TNT. Lying in a
hospital, he didn't care much whether he lived or died. He had a visitor who
had lost his own hands in World War I. He told him to look up the word
handicap in the dictionary. He did so and read this definition: "Any
disadvantage or hindrance making success in an undertaking more
difficult." This made him realize that a handicap just meant he had to work
harder for success. He went on to become a writer and a lecturer, and he
developed abilities he never dreamed he had. He wrote, "My weakness-my
handlessness- my sense of inferiority-has turned out to be my greatest
strength....this seeming disaster as brought me a priceless wealth of the spirit
that I am sure I could never have possessed otherwise. I have enjoyed a life
that has been full and rich and rewarding, a life that has had a meaning and
depth it never had before...It is not what you have lost, but what you have
left that counts."
None of us are all that God intended people to be, and so all of us are in
some way handicapped, and none of us are whole and complete. Even
though Jesus was the perfect man, even He was handicapped in the sense
that He gave up equality with the Father and took on enormous limitations to
become a man. As the Son of Man He was greatly limited. He became a
handicapped person and suffered even greater handicaps for our salvation
and our perfection. He did so in order that we might have an eternal life
free from all the handicaps of a fallen world.
Meanwhile, we have to live in this fallen world and cope with its
limitations. David was kind to the handicapped son of Jonathan, but he was
often cruel to himself by not over coming his handicaps. He had poor control
over his own sex drive and over his children. These were handicaps that
lead to great suffering and sorrow for him and his whole family. Life is a
battle with handicaps, which are all of the weaknesses and limitations that
make us less than ideal.
When you are kind to any person you are being kind to the handicapped,
for that is the state of all people. Show me a person who is in no way
damaged or defective and I will show you an illusion. All people are
handicapped, but some are more conspicuous than others, and so they have
more conspicuous needs to be met. But all people have the same need to be
encouraged to overcome their handicaps. Nobody needs to accept a less than
excellent life. Disabilities need not stifle us from making the best of a bad
situation.
Ted Engstrom in his book The Pursuit of Excellence p. 81-2 writes,
"Cripple him and you have Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and
you have a John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you
have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty and y;ou have an
Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes
Franklin Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that the doctors say he'll never
walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham-who set the world's one-mile
record in 1934. Deafen him and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven. Have
him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you
have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, A George Washington
Carver....call him a slow learner, "retarded," and write him off as
uneducable, and you have an Albert Einstein."
If you want to see lists of famous people all through history who have
overcome handicaps go tohttp://members.aol.com/disablenet/Leaders/Leaders.html
One of the most famous musicians in our world today who has played his
violin all over the world to cheering crowds had polio in his early life. He has
to play on crutches, but he brings thrills to Kings and Queen, Presidents,
Leaders of all nations, and to the masses. His name is Itzhak Perlman. The
point of all this is not that every handicapped person can become famous, for
that is not even true of the non-handicapped. The point is that a handicap
does not mean that the person who has it is any less of a person, but that they
have the capacity to be all they can be too, and sometimes that is a great deal
more than those who have no such handicap. That is why they need to be
encouraged, like everyone else, to seek to discover their gifts; develop them,
and dedicate them to the cause of Christ.
The seven letters of Christ to His churches in Rev. 2 and 3 make it clear
that Christians are handicapped people who have many defects, and Jesus
encourages each to see that they also have virtues and assets to overcome
those handicaps. Helping the handicapped is what those seven letters are all
about, and that is what the Christian life is all about. The greatest handicap
of all is to be a person made in the image of God with an eternal soul, and yet
be so lame you cannot walk in the light of God's will. It is awful to be so
dead in sin that you are like a dead dog as far as your value to the kingdom
of God. The Gospel is the good news that Jesus died for just such dead dogs.
He rose again that they might live too and be raised to run with the Hound of
Heaven in helping the other handicapped find their legs so they too can walk
in newness of life. We are all like Mephibosheth, for we are all handicapped,
but we are also all called in Christ to be like David and be helpers of the
handicapped.
