Different, not less than; the name of our series over the last week in chapel. People who live with disabilities are different, not less than me and you because each of us is designed to change this world in diverse ways. The definition of the word disability is, "a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities." Especially after this week the word, limits, seems out of place.
Joni Eareckson Tada dove off a dock into the Chesapeake Bay, but misjudged the depth of the water and was paralyzed from the shoulder down. As Joni was being introduced in chapel on Friday the list of books written, degrees, awards, and achievements that she had worked for and been given kept going on and on (the very opposite of "limited"). Now she is the founder and CEO of Joni and Friends International Disability Center an outreach to thousands of families affected by disabilities around the world.
Another example of those with "so called" limits pressing past those limits is a man by the name of Emory Dively. He is a deaf pastor at Twin Cities Deaf Assemblies of God who also travels around the country signing his story. An interpreter translated into a microphone from the audience continuously getting behind Emory due to his enthusiastic story telling. He had a wonderful sense of humor and talked of God's plan for our lives (Ephesians 2:10)
This morning I volunteered with other girls on my floor at the Special Olympics and there was pure joy in the faces of those competing. They were just so thrilled to be there and do what they love.
I am perfectly healthy, but maybe by the standards of dictionary.com I do have a disability. I am limited in many ways. Some days it is difficult to find even a fraction of the joy that the people I saw today have all the time. I am still limited by my view of the world and wonder what beauty they see everyday that I only occasionally glance at.
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| G3 Girls Volunteering at the Special Olympics
Disability. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disability
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