One thing that persons with disability, particularly cognitive disability can do is pray. Their prayers are often short and to the point (John is going into the hospital for cancer surgery . . . "Oh Lord, please guide the hands of the surgeons and help them to be a blessing-blah-blah-blah" versus "God, please help John get better, Amen.") which can be a good example. Their prayers are heartfelt. We have one member of our group who cannot keep himself from crying nearly every time he prays. They oftentimes have bigtime faith. But the bottom line, is that their prayers are EQUAL to my or anyone elses prayers. SWEET! You don't need to be highly intelligent or have any special skills to be able to say a prayer. So their service is equal in every way to that of those in the church who do not experience disability.
Man do I love the level playing field we have before the Lord. As I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog,
BUT- God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise . . . He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1: 27-29)
We can set the standard for a life of prayer through the example of persons with cognitive disabilities. We for sure can raise the standard for the church through the prayer life of persons with disability. This is truly exciting.
So start this at your own church. The disabiled community has all the skill required to be the leaders of the church in prayer. Lets raise the bar and set the standard.
McNair
(fcbu)
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1 comment:
I understand what you are trying to say with the prayers. People with disabilities say something for example a prayer really simple and to the main point rather than being more creative or specific by providing an example or giving more details on the prayer. I have seen and heard people regardless if they have a disability or not annoucing a short, simple, and to the point, prayers at church. I really do not attend any church, but I went to do an observation at a Church in Corona and even the priest announced short simple prayers to the people. And I do not think he had a disability. So i think that people should not judge how the prayer is made or announce because what counts is that you had that nice feeling of praying for someone and regardless how you say it you are equal to God and that is all that counts. Everyone is equal in God's eyes but we people do not see it like that. We always tend to be better than someone else like your neighbor, relatives, friends, family members, especially people with disabilities. But regardless or your ethnicity, wealth, and your disability in God's eyes you are equal like any other person. Every person has feelings and I think that people with disabilities have better feelings and care for their love ones, friends, family, and other people; there are people that do not even care about their families and they do not even pray for them. Overall, every prayer counts and it's received by God regardless how you say and when you say it.
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