Onward, Upward, and Further In

I have been seeing many articles about euthanasia in Canada. More and more people are seeking to argue against euthanasia. I am sincerely thankful for that. However, it is not enough to write articles. We need to live like we believe that the disabled and elderly should not be euthanized if we really want to win this fight. A Little Bit About My Experience with Disability and Chronic Illness: I’ve struggled with health issues since I was a child. I had such intense ripping horrific pain in my arms and hands, I had to quit guitar, flute and was not able to further pursue piano. I had to have special permissions for extra time to write exams (in high school and college), due to the severity of the pain. I struggled to use cutlery. There are many times I could not lift my fork from the plate to my mouth. Doctors had no answers. I felt pretty lost as a teenager, not knowing what jobs to pursue because of the limitations my arms gave me. I didn’t know what college programs to pur...

Living with disability has always been difficult in the human experience. Job was blamed for all the suffering that fell upon him (including excruciating sores all over his body). His friends made the faulty assumption that Job suffered due to his own sin. Jesus’ disciples were also confused about disability. They assumed that a man born blind had sinned, or his parents had sinned. Jesus answered them with this: “It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:1-3) The view of disability in Scripture is incredibly precious. God sees the broken, and promises to heal them. He will be glorified by them, and they will glory in him! When I am feeling very defeated by messages from friends, family or the world, I turn to Isaiah 35: “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance with the recompense of God. He will co...

A) My personal struggles with the subject of sexual abuse: When the Epstein case was in the news a few years ago, I was not able to follow very much of it. It was too close to home. I couldn’t read about it without going to dark places in my own mind. The area of my life where I have had the most severe crisis of faith is in the arena of child abuse. I went to Bible College, wanting to know Christ more and wanting to serve God with the entirety of my life. However, as I sat through hours and hours of classes, and studied the Scriptures deeply, I was in an excruciating private battle with the Lord. I had been abused as a very young child. And I had never been able to tell anyone about it. I couldn’t understand what would lead a man to do something so awful to a child. There is nothing, nothing in the world, that made me so angry. There is nothing in the world that hurt me so much… I was around a lot of Christians at the time. While I didn’t tell anyone about the abuse, I did ...