Outside Looking in: Addressing the elephant in the room: Part 1: By: Paula Gollaway

I am a woman gracefully aging into the 7th decade of her life. I am a mother, a grandmother, a

great grandmother, and a wife. Yet the most important part of the age-old adage “who am I?” is

this fact alone– I AM A CHILD OF GOD.

God created me, planned my life, and knew all the

wrong turns I would take, which there have been many to account for. He has guided me back to

correct paths and securely set my footing on solid ground. He is ALWAYS there to listen to me

lament, smile at my laughter, respond to my many “why God” questions, and of course to hear

my resounding praise, THANK YOU FATHER GOD!

The world I have lived in professionally

for over 40+ years, the center of the ministry I am called by God to establish, is the same one I

live in day-after-day. This is the wonderful world of Individuals with Disabilities (IWD).

Often when attending a church, I hear words such as: “All are welcome here” to which I have no

doubt that all would be welcomed into any church. Though if I am being honest, the statement is

beginning to sound hollow and the warmth of a welcomed invitation for all grows colder still. Is

this the new buzz catchphrase for the church?

Or does the church realize that in the same breadth

they both say words that would welcome a wayward soul into the building while inadvertently,

through their actions or lack thereof, leave IWD’s on the outside-looking-in longing to be a part

of the body.

I am not declaring that any faith-believing, Christ-centered church intentionally places the IWD

community into a “non-priority” status, and this in no way is meant to brow beat any church

body. Nor do I think that any one church can effectively accommodate all the IWD population.

In fact, if your church attempts to meet all the amassing needs, they will certainly fall short. Yet,

the staggering statistic runs that between 80 - 90% of IWD’s are either unchurched or under

served in church, which begs the question: Why is the Christian church marginalizing IWD’s?

Eyebrows might raise and heads may turn in alarm at the audacity of such a statement.

Yet a brief glimpse of the “if only” laundry list that IWD’s must overcome on a weekly basis to

attend church might assist in bringing awareness to the body of believers so intent on

“welcoming all.”

“Our church has a special needs program” – Up front I find the terminology a bit antiquated.

The label conjures up a nice pat on the head with the intent of segregating IWD’s away from the

“real church people.”

Or the statement tokenizes the IWD community as a particular outreach project, rather than a vital part of the functioning body.

“There is always someone who will open the door” – True for Sunday or special events but

what if I wish to attend a small group meeting during the week?

How do I get access?

If I am Deaf or Hard of Hearing, are there any certified sign language interpreters for the

message?

If not, what is the value of attending church?

How will I even be able to know what is being said? Is it not the “hearing” of the word that brings the knowledge of God?

What if I am blind in addition to Deaf, are the notes only on paper or are they transcribed into Braille? When

will a sermon be spoken in the language that my heart can actually understand?

If I have a mobility disability, can I get in and out of the restroom without asking for assistance

in opening the door?

When I see the “handicapped” icon placed near the restroom door and do

not see the accessible touch pad that allows me to enter/exist the restroom on my own, am I

reduced to asking for assistance?

What if it’s during a service and

there is no one there to assist me?

What if it’s a restroom on a different floor or requires me to go down two stairs? Do they

have ramps inside the building?

These are mere drops in the ocean to the “if only” list of obstacles that IWD’s must face, and to

account for every need would further fill volumes too numerous to count.

Thus, the matter is not so much about a church’s motive to welcome all, but more importantly on how to move toward

the functional integration of the IWD community into the family of God.

Otherwise IWD’s will continue longing to belong to the body of Christ but will never find a way from the outside

looking in to fully being able to live within.

So where do we begin to unpack the elephant in the room, the one under the carpet, and perhaps the one sitting in the wheelchair?

Baking the Shewbread

I was at the library with the kids. We love talking about biographies and real stories of people that make a difference in this world.

One of the books I was reading to them was about a wonderful group of ladies during the Civil Rights Movement.  They were called “nowhere.” They literally named themselves, “the group from nowhere.”

They pretty much single-handedly raised the funds needed to sustain the Montgomery Bus Boycott protesters and leaders. Through baking pies and cakes, selling food- hosting leaders like Martin Luther King Junior at their home- they were able to feed hundreds of hungry people and raise thousands of dollars during this time period.

And they were pretty much stayed anonymous- naming themselves “nowhere”. So that when people would ask, “Where did you get this money? Where did you get these funds? Where did you get this new station wagon from?” They said “nowhere.”

I was moved to tears- reading this story.  We have this group of women, risking their lives, risking their family (they could be thrown in Jail and lose their homes) to cook for a cause.  They risked their own health and family to bake for thousands of hours- over a hot stove to raise money for an illegal cause.

It’s was just such an amazing story.

This week, I am meditating on Leviticus 24. In order to bring the prescence into the Tabernacle- they had an entire group of priests whose only job it was to bake the bread of the presence in the Holy Tabernacle-the shewbread DAILY.  There weren’t machines that you just throw the stuff in, you press a button and you throw it in the oven and done.

Everything was made through grueling energy and time. Measuring the flour, grinding the flour, milling, heating the oven, hand-cutting all the wood, kneeding the dough for hours of time.

We don't realize how we can bring God's presence into a situation, how we can affect change in our work, our school and our family.

Bringing God’s life-giving presence  is sometimes just through simple things.

Maybe for you- every single morning. You get up And you bring worship music into the home while you make coffee.

I get breakfast, I clean the dishwasher, I have the music playing. The worship music gets playing before my kids even get up. That way I bring God's presence into the home.

And this is what I like to call “baking the Shewbread of the Presence”- my daily routine of the small ways that I can meet in God’s presence.

What's going to make the difference in this world?

The presence of God.

It’s going to change your city, your kids, your environment and your work.  What are you doing to make the bread of the presence? How do you to bring in His presence?

If that means playing worship music in the car on your way to work, if that means praying over your kids before they go to school- do that.

These things are so important.

Just like these women in the Civil Rights Movement- how they were just anonymous, behind-the-scenes, doing all these things.

You never hear about these ladies.

You don't Know most of their names. But yet they fed and gave money to an effort that now changed history. They didn't know they were changing history at the time. They were just baking their bread.

They were baking their pies. They were baking the essentials to feed the Civil Rights Movement behind closed doors.  They weren't even seen or talked about until this book came out.

I was just thinking how many times as women especially- we are not seen.  We are behind-the-scenes in our houses.  We are just cooking, cleaning and doing some of these things.

God's presence can enter into your home, into your life-just by you-working for the Lord. Knowing that you're doing it for Him and His glory.

Unlimited

My family and I went camping this weekend and we were staying our campsite was right next to the mini golf course.

So of course, my nine-year-old and my six-year-old now had such a fun time going there every single day and just hitting golf balls.

And on our last day we were cleaning up and I just hear screams from the mini golf course.

So I just literally look over. It literally is next to my campsite-I look over- and my oldest son is snatching the ball away from my youngest son.

And I yell over there and go. “What are you guys doing? There's golf clubs and just buckets everywhere. You can have unlimited golf. It's one flat fee. Unlimited off all day, you can just go get another ball. Why are you guys fighting over a ball?”

And it just reminded me of this feeling that we get as adults as humans.

That there's only so much, limited resources. So we have to scrounge around. We have to fight. We have to have this competitive cutthroat nature.

When we are growing up as adults and we think there's only a limited amount of love. There's a limited amount of money. There's a limited amount of Education. There's a limited amount of jobs.

And so we have this, this idea as older adults, that we have to fight and scrimp, and save, and scratch, and join this Rat Race because there's only a limited amount of resources.

There’s this mindset. You see it online, you see it on the universities, they only take the top one percent.

“Limited space- limited time, limited sale.”

“Today is only 2 days left.”

So there's this language of rushing, there's this language of limited resource to get.

You see it all the time in advertising.

There’s limited life.

You body clock and your biological clock is ticking.

So there's this constant mentality in this earth of you have limited time, limited resources.

We have this mentality of - you get what you get for you and too bad So sad.

It reminded me of if you serve God, who has unlimited resources, unlimited patients unlimited power, you never have to have that mindset of you're in a rush or the timing is wrong.

Like you missed your opportunity or you missed the boat.

God has unlimited power, riches, ability, creativity, and timing.

You need to get out of that mindset of this Cutthroat mentality and you have this idea we all have enough for my me and our family.

It says in the Bible, “Do not worry about what you wear, what you eat, what you drink, how you live, don't worry about your life because what will worrying going to add any to your life?” (Matthew 6)

It says in the Bible “Do not be anxious about anything. Do not worry about anything -through everything, every situation- through prayer and petition. Ask God, he'll make sure he'll take care of you.” (Philippians 4)

It says “Never have I seen the righteous forsaken.” (Psalms 37:25)

and “He owns the cattle on a thousand hills..” (Psalms 50)

So there's always this language that's so opposite of our world.

God has it all.

So we don't have to worry about making sure we get our piece- so too bad so sad.

There's unlimited, Grace, unlimited love.

There was literally a burn in my spirit when I saw my my kids fighting over the balls. This visual just came to me and that's going to set somebody free today.

I don't know who that's for, but that is what the Holy Spirit gave to me for someone today. And

so if you think that your timings off your biological clock is running, and you feel like you Have to rush and you're in the wrong place at the wrong time and stuff isn't happening guys.

You serve a God with unlimited creativity, Unlimited power that lives out of time and space.

He is not in a linear timeline, just serve him. Love him. He will Zoom it right in.

He'll Rush order it to you overnight at to you. You do not have to worry about anything that goes on.