“God-is-abled”

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 some form of artistic mark 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 147-149.

Opening Thought: This reading really dives into how God moved Vujicic in a way that makes him feel and know that ha is completed as a person by Christ, so even though the world may call Nick disabled, Nick see himself with God in his heart as being abled. He makes a little pun with Go-d is abled, which I thought was clever. I like this idea of God enabling, because we all have struggles and weaknesses, but with God all things are possible, even things beyond the normal limits we assume we have. Even though Nick’s disability is pretty clear to the eye many people have challenges that are hidden from appearances and I think this premise of God enabling us to be all we can be by His will remind ever believer that they have purpose and meaning, every life had purpose and meaning and that is the most wonderful lesson to learn.

The devotional begins with: Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Second Thought:

If someone was to look at me, they might not guess that I live with a physical disability of sorts. I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, (I’ll let you look that up if you don’t know what that is) and as a result I suffer from a fair amount of chronic pain which can be immobilizing somedays with excruciating pain, and other days just a mild pain in the butt. Now the interesting things is I often feel blessed from my disability, because it forced me to perceive the world in another way, and if I had to sum that up in a short one liner it would be “the world has hurdles not barriers”. However, that way of thinking had to be decided upon, and like Nick Vujicic, I came to a better internal disposition of positivity when I gave my struggles up to God. I think what really helped me was removing the idea that I was entitled to the exact life and experience everyone else had, or another way to put it, realizing I wasn’t entitled to have no barriers in my path. When I look at the words of  Galatians 3:28 “here is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” I feel like something that could be seen as a natural continuation would be that “for you are all complete (or enabled) in Christ Jesus” because the idea is that no matter who you are, you have a calling from Christ and when you respond to that call and join into the body of Christ, you are complete in that oneness of the faith. For those who feel broken in body, mind and/or spirit, the call is the same, we are complete in Christ no matter our former context. So, we do not need to gain what we did not have and in turn we can let go of any entitled feelings and just live the life we have, even if that involves a little chronic pain.

When my EDS is causing a rough day and merely walking causes white out pain, instead of longing for something I don’t have, I accept my reality, give thanks to God, sit down and crack open a good book, minister to others, pray, call a friend, watch a movie, play a video game, paint, draw, anything from the nearly the endless list of things so do in this world while not walking.    

Continual Work: Try thinking about the ways you feel that you fall short of ideal, and then give the issue over to God, and ask God to guide you and work with you in your short comings. If you challenged in body, mind or spirit ask for the strength of courage and trust in God’s will.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I tend to struggle with selfcare, as I have noted in previous blogs, I am a bit of a workaholic, so I tend to prioritize that, which suits me well. When I am in bad pain sometimes it can be hard for me to pause my ambitions to let myself heal. This is partly because my ego come into play, I feel like my work is so vital that if I don’t do it the world will come crumbling down… which is just not true. This is where I have to be willing to give my stress, anxiety and pride over to God and trust in Him that God has the world in His hands. 

 Scripture time: 2 Timothy 2:12

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

The Bible does not say we won’t suffer. In fact, it more often says we will suffer for a number of reasons. We can try to limit any needless suffering, but suffering is a reality. The humbling thought of Christ coming and suffering with us and for us, and  then showing in His resurrection that he not only conquers death, but also the thing we often fear more than death: suffering, offers us a truth, that our suffering is not the end of the world. Then, we can know that with Christ in our hearts we can come through all out hurdles and barriers and come out victorious.

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: He is the title cover to the book we have been looking at, I wanted you to see Nick Vujicic and notice his great smile.