My Inbox of Daily Inspirations: Daily Heartlight -- June 2, 2008

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June 2, 2008

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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================

Coming Down in the Wrong Place, by Phil Ware

This article first appeared more than 11 years ago in Heartlight.
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Thanks!

Did you hear about the pilot who landed his 737 jet on an abandoned
World War II era landing strip? The correct runway was nearly five
miles away! "It was essentially pilot error ..." the airline official
said.

Yeah, no joke!

As horrible as this sounds, haven't you done the same thing? Oh sure,
it wasn't with an airliner, but haven't you come down in the wrong
place before? Maybe you said something inappropriate, falsely judged
someone's motives, did something embarrassing at the wrong moment, made
a gigantic boo-boo at a public occasion, or ruined the mood of a tender
moment. We come down in the wrong place a whole lot. It's just part of
being human! None of us is perfect ... and most of us are far from it!

A number of years ago, I attended the funeral of the brother of a dear
friend. He was born with Down Syndrome. The service was wonderful and
sweet. But it was based on an assumption that struck me as tremendously
flawed: "When this sweet man gets to heaven, he will be made whole and
perfect like we are."

But didn't Jesus say that in his Kingdom the greatest person is a
servant, that love is the cardinal virtue, that the last will be first,
that the least will be greatest, and that unless we become like little
children we won't get into the Kingdom of Heaven! What Jesus' words
tell me is that we have it wrong. In the areas of life which matter
most, instead of this sweet man being more like us, in heaven we'll be
more like him.

So much of what we value comes down in the wrong place -- how we look,
the titles we hold, the money we make, our physical and our mental
capabilities. Yet the things that matter most, things like unrestrained
joy, unfeigned kindness, expressive love, unmitigated wonder,
unreserved forgiveness, and un-coerced service are often found most in
those our world regards as broken, deformed, handicapped, or retarded.

What should we do?

While the politically correct police have sought to reform our
terminology, our bias and bigotry have only deepened as more and more
of these who are more like heaven are never given the opportunity to
grace our earth. That sort of makes an airplane coming down on the
wrong landing strip seem pretty insignificant.

None of us should underestimate the difficulties of raising a child
with "special challenges," but we must also learn to value those who
are "precious in his sight." Otherwise I'm afraid we will find our
"more perfect" children crash landing in many wrong places because the
compass we give them is false and the place we land is in the wrong
place.

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In several Scandinavian countries, Down Syndrome people were once
regarded as angels. Yet more and more in modern cultures, we tend to
use more politically correct language to describe these precious people
while doing less to protect them legally and value them socially.

What can we do as believers to make our church communities a place of
safety where these children and adults are valued?

I'd love to hear from you about this on my blog, especially those who
have Down Syndrome siblings or children:
http://www.thephilfiles.com/2008/06/02/those-god-holds-precious/.

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Daily Heartlight -- June 2, 2008