03/28/24 NOT AS IT APPEARS

03/28/24 NOT AS IT APPEARS

I met a young lady recently who has either a learning or social disability. She was polite and friendly. She overheard me in a conversation with another person and when I mentioned that I was a pastor, she asked if I had ever heard about a certain church, which I found out later was her church. She mentioned that she had a disability, but she had started going to this church. She told me and Martha she had gotten saved and how the people were an encouragement to her, and told her she did not have a disability. She told me about various programs in her church and how happy she was to be part of that body. I don't doubt her salvation testimony and I do believe that her fellow church folks are loving and helpful to her.

I found it interesting that she was so straightforward and natural about sharing her own spiritual status and promoting her church. By her own admission, her church was providing a loving and supportive presence in her life.

It was evident that she did have some kind of a cognitive problem, but I was impressed with her eagerness to share the importance of her spiritual life and her church experience. I meet very few people who are as open and enthusiastic about these things. Of course, some critic may say that mental slowness and religious involvement go together.

I had a dear friend, from my childhood years to my adult life, who had a cognitive disability, and he realized it. Yet in some ways he had more common sense and awareness than most of the people around him. He not only had cognitive disability, he suffered physical disabilities as well. He often fell, injuring himself. But from the time he was very young, every Sunday morning he would slowly navigate past my house, on his way to Sunday School and Church Services. His parents did not take him, he did not have neighbors who took him, but without fail, there he was, sometimes stumbling his way to church.

We attended the same church. From the time that I was in the sixth grade we lived in the same neighborhood, and even when I was able to drive, I still walked to my church, which was about 900 feet away. My friend walked about 1700 feet, coming past my house. (I have included a photo, showing the path from my childhood home in Promise Land to my church, in those days).

He would stop in front of my house and call out my name, so we could walk together. Almost always, I was late getting ready (a fault in my life that I eventually surrendered to God and brought under self control by His grace). I would go to the front door and tell my friend to go ahead of me and I would catch up. Off he would stumble, while I hurriedly finished getting ready and then scurried after him. I miss those days. I miss my friend. I often think of him, with tears in my eyes.

But my point is, my friend was not like the rest of society, and though he physically stumbled along and he realized he was, "not like everybody else," he was far ahead of most people when it came to the simple faith issue. I had other friends who also had learning disabilities, and they were not as spiritually oriented as my dear friend. It was not a learning disability that made my friend spiritual, but he definitely had something beautiful, which most of, "normal" society did not have.

How disturbing to realize that so many believers, with all of the advantages of health, competence, mobility, and every other treasure are so SLOW in sharing their faith, demonstrating their spiritual advantages. I almost never have other people approach me with a Christian witness, and even when I reach out to other people, there are very few who acknowledge a vibrant relationship with God and a vital church experience.