Blessings in Disguise

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally a song, hymn or selection of poetry to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 53-55.

Opening Thought: Nick’s story, being born without limbs, is awe-inspiring. We all have challenges, but I don’t think many of us could believe someone with such a challenge could rise the way Nick did. This week the church band Band Together, was singing a song Open the Eyes of my Heart. In the morning prior to the service I search the song on YouTube to remind myself of what it sounded like; I found a video of a blind autistic boy singing this song like a pro. It almost made me cry to see such a strong faith in someone with so much challenge.             

The devotional begins with: 
Psalm 100:3-5

Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

Second Thought: I have come across, in my time, a verity of disability theology. It is not something I have dived into too deeply. However, two ideas that I have come in contact with in disability theology is 1) because we are created in God’s image, and some people are disabled then it is reasonable to assume that within God’s image is an aspect that is disabled. 2) The second is that in our fallen nature, everyone is disabled, body, mind, spirit, and will, we are a limited in one way or another and in all circumstances Jesus can carry us through. The former idea is a bit challenging to consider, not saying it isn’t valid, but it is playing into understanding God’s being which is very much far beyond our capacity, and, in turn, can result in a needless idolization of our understanding of God. However, with that said, in Nick Vujicic’s work he speaks of being enabled, Christ in his ministry shows that we can be enabled, we can move forward despite our struggles and limits in life. This could be seen as the quality of perseverance, and in this case, yes I think we can attribute transcendent characters like perseverance, steadfastness, hope, humility, all sorts of attributes which are fundamental for rising above the limitations of a disability, and enabling yourself and your life through Christ’s love.        

Continual Work: I suffer from chronic pain from my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, so I do have an appreciation of a disability theology, but I would also love to see a theological systematic on pain and suffering. I know theologians have all some dedicated time to this issue of pain and suffering as it ties into the traditional problem of evil, but I would like to see a deeper expression of suffering as virtue, pain as dignity. (But I would like it to be distinct from martyrdom, because I often feel martyrdom theology is a bit misguided.)

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I’m going to try to see God at work in all challenges of life. I am currently working to help reduce my pain through diet analysis, and as much as I can learn from my pain, I can also do a lot more with less pain clouding my day.    

Scripture time: Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
   Worship the Lord with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
    For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Jesus in him ministry describes himself as the gate in which saves the sheep. When you apply this Hebrew Scripture to the nuance of the New Testament’s Gospel, we see the truth echoing loudly. Enter God’s kingdom through the gate that is Jesus Christ, it is our entrance and our protection. When we identify as disabled – the prescription for the whole of our being is the same as everyone else, we all need Jesus.           

Prayer Time: Jesus be the gate I need to transcend my limitations of life, where I am disabled one way, allow it to be a beacon to show how I can be enabled through you. Amen. 

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Artistic Close: 

A link to the video I told you about above.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPTMA7HIIyk