Not according to the book of Job!

For the first 28 chapters Job is under the continued harassment and accusation of his friends that the cause of his epic suffering must be the presence of extraordinary sin in his life. In Chapters 29 and 30 Job shares the sweetness of the “friendship of God” prior to the cataclysm of pain and loss that now engulfs him. And In contradiction to their repeated assertions of his unrepentant wickedness he makes unhesitating declarations and descriptions of his actual positive holiness (though he never declares himself to be without sin).

Of the many striking and theologically significant aspects of the book of Job, this is one that I think is the most consistently overlooked- how Job defines what it means to be right before God. And I think the reason why we overlook it is because Job does not describe what it means to be a “good” person or righteous man or woman in the way we expect it or to perhaps to put it more pointedly, the way we would like him to define it. For when Job defends the righteousness of his life, which God has already declared of him (Job 1), he does not describe his prayer life, theological knowledge, how frequently he fasts, church offices he holds, etc., but his entire argument is based on how he has dealt with and cared for the orphan, the afflicted, and the needy.

“because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.” (Job 29:12-16).

In one of the most emotionally moving scenes of the entire book; Job begs God to act on his behalf for “does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?’ (Job 30:24). In the insanity and desperation of his suffering, Job contrasts the righteousness he has shown the afflicted and the lack of goodness Job feels displayed in God’s silence. “Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?” (Job 30:25)

Could you sum up your life that way? Would that be how you would define righteousness? If you were making an appeal to God on account of your right standing before Him, your “goodness” – is this what you would say? Perhaps one of the most important lessons we need to learn from Job is not only patience (perseverance) in the midst of difficulty, but also a passion for those whose whole lives are difficult.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2 out of every 10 people worldwide have an intellectual or physical disability. That is approximately 650 million people. They further estimate that 80% of people with a disability live in the developing world. According to Special Olympics International there are an estimated 200 million individuals worldwide with an intellectual disability.

What I would be interested in knowing is how in the world did they come up with those figures, since in most of sub-Saharan Africa, as an example, children who are born with an intellectual or physical disability were specifically not registered at birth. So, therefore, they could not possibly be counted, if statistics were counted merely from birth records. Census attempts would likely prove just as fruitless since nearly every African home, village, or compound, by cultural norm will deny the presence and existence of a child, or children with disabilities.

By way of anecdote, I visited a compound in Zambia, accompanied by a long-time community leader, and asked the leader where the families of intellectual disabilities that we could visit were. Though it was a compound of over 10,000 people, he said that he didn’t know of any, but suggested that there was an elderly woman who had lived in the compound far longer than he, and perhaps she would know if there had been any. As I met the woman, I again asked her my question, “were there any children in the compound who had disabilities?” And she quickly answered, “no, we don’t have any of those”.

Considering that perhaps my request was unclear, I went on to describe in detail the nature and kind of various disabilities and children that I work with, and once again, she said “no, we don’t have any of those”. I was completely shocked. I was perplexed. Here was a statistical miracle. In a compound of 10, 000 of some of the poorest in Zambia, not a single individual could be found who was disabled! Statistically speaking, there should be over 2,000 individuals!

Not knowing what else to do, I took out a picture of my family, and said to the woman, “this is remarkable, an entire compound and no one with disabilities! In my family, I have three.” She took the photograph from my hand, looking at each of my children who have Down syndrome, and finally looked up at me and said, without any explanation, “there are three families who live right over there who have children like yours”.

I visited those three families. In each of these three families, it followed the same pattern. The initial denial in the doorway, the careful looking at our family photo, and then the very kind welcome into their home. Each of these families supplied us with more families, and within an hour we had families seeking us, asking “are you the man whose children have disabilities?”. According to the families I spoke with, the WHO’s estimation of 2 out of every 10 was far lower than their experience in this compound. And, yet, they were invisible. Invisible, even if you were looking for them. Invisible, perhaps until it was clear you were one of them.

On my flight home from Africa, I “just so happened” to be seated next to a consultant with one of the largest child health and welfare organizations in the world. And, I shared with him my experience in the compound. He agreed that the statistics they have for children with disabilities have no basis on actual children with disabilities.

The tragic reality is that the phenomena described here portrays not really a weakness or poor methodology in statistical representations, but belies far greater consequences for children and individuals with disabilities. First, the routine practice in sub-Saharan Africa of not registering births of children who have disabilities means that they have no formal or legal status. They can’t get a passport, have no legal or political rights, and are often then denied medical and financial assistance. Second, their is virtually no accountability for caretakers, for both community and international aid and welfare organizations often have no knowledge of the true nature of their care and condition, since they are hidden away.

As the old phrase goes, ‘out of sight, out of mind’. But perhaps that’s really how we like it.

I think for most of us, if we considered listing the necessary attributes of God revealed in the Bible, that is, what Scripture declares to be the fundamental requirements of God’s nature and character for Him to be God, the One and Only God, these would be largely the same. We would all affirm that God must be holy, God must be all-powerful, He must be all-knowing, and so on.

However, I’ve been rereading Jonathan Edwards’ work, The End for Which God Created the World (see our Great Reads section if your interest is piqued), and was struck again by his argument that one of the necessary attributes of God is that He must be perpetually and pervasively happy. If God is not happy and able to keep Himself so, we can have no confidence in His ability to bring any of our lives, then, to a happy conclusion. If He cannot behold His own creation, and the glory of His own being, and find everlasting delight, how can we ever possibly hope to?

And so he argues in his unique, Edwardsian fashion, (which is appropriate, since he is Edwards!), piling argument upon argument, and scripture upon scripture, until you finally succumb to the avalanche of both God’s Word and reason that God indeed must necessarily be happy.

Once I dug myself out, I was struck by a similar aspect of God’s character that we typically would not name, but I believe to be absolutely indispensable. For most who have considered the plight of the orphan and the afflicted, you know, it does not take long to pull together the dozens upon dozens of passages in Scripture where God speaks on their behalf. And perhaps you’ve even noted with delight and approval God’s consistent declaration that He is “the God of the orphan and the widow”. But have you considered what all these passages and promises about the orphan have to do with you and me?

In the book of Hosea God provides us with one of the first “reality” series ever devised. The purpose here is not gross voyeurism, but a living portrayal of Israel’s betrayal to her husband, the Lord and God of all. Through Hosea and Gomer Israel’s persistent and grotesque adulteries to the gods of the nations is paraded publicly before the people. God’s judgements are repeated throughout the book until at last Israel is appealed to return to God, “to take words with you, and to return to the Lord”. (Hosea 14:2) They are to say to God “Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses, and we will say no more, ‘our god’ to the work of our hands. In You the orphan finds mercy”. (Hosea 14:3)

Here comes the key part. Notice the flow of their argument. First they promise to not trust in other nations. (Therefore, also the gods of other nations.) Nor will they ride on horses, which refers to their trusting in armies to protect them or save them. Finally they declare they will turn away from idols.

But what is the ground of their hope? On what basis can they possibly appeal to God to hear, heal, and forgive them one more time? It can’t be based upon covenant performance or faithfulness for as we have seen, the entire book is an expose of their scandalous infidelities. Nor, they have found, that they can place any hope on merely clinging to their covenantal status as “God People” (see Hosea 1:9).

The answer of course, is in the final phrase of 14:3, “In you the orphan finds mercy.” Okay, so at first glance their argument might look a bit obtuse, but let me try to focus it in for us. If God delights to show mercy (hesed: lovingkindness, grace) to the orphan who has no greatness to commend him, no position that can be leveraged to God’s benefit, but cry out to God simply because they have nowhere else to go, so, then, can we. For we learn that grace is not dependent upon position or performance, but rather a coming to Him broken and empty and wanting no other options but Him.

So, why do we need a God who favors the weak? For the basis of our hope rests solely on one peculiar aspect of God’s nature; His preference for the weak. Thanks be to God.

Hos. 14:3c

Most of us have built our lives in order to be stronger, more together, more impressive, our resumes are testimonies to our strengths and achievements. For most of us, weaknesses, the broken parts of us, are the parts we labor so mightily to hide from the rest of the world. This may be quite simply the reason so many of us have difficulty with people who have disabilities, because their weaknesses are just so out there. So while we try to stuff our weaknesses behind us, and have them trail as far behind us as possible, those with intellectual and physical disabilities have them pushed right ahead of them. And though most of us would never say it quite like this, the reality is that most of us do despise and abhor the affliction of the afflicted (Psalm 22:24).

If you’ve read our bio piece, then you’ll know that we’ve adopted three children who have Down syndrome. Fifteen years of parenting have convinced us completely that to most people, indeed, the vast majority of people, our children are either annoyances, or invisible. Which, like David, has caused us over and over to rejoice and give God glory, that He neither despises or abhors the afflictions of the afflicted.

So, you are reading this post, therefore you must have some concern and interest in the welfare of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. So, please forgive us if 15 years of watching the scowls and staring and pointing fingers, or our personal favorite of seeing how three teenage children with Down syndrome can suddenly become completely invisible when they try to speak and interact with others, causes us to ask you some pointed questions. How many individuals do you know (that you are not related to) that have an intellectual or developmental disability? Do you know what their favorite thing in the entire world is? Do you know what they are afraid of? What is their favorite song? If they could eat any food over and over again, what would it be? Do you even know their name, you know, that young man or woman who bags your groceries every week? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then you absolutely do not know their strengths. You don’t know who they are. Your own weaknesses have hindered you from seeing their strengths. So, while you may not abhor the ‘affliction of the afflicted’, neither do you know them. Now whose weaknesses are going before them?

If my heart was revealed in that moment, one of the places God reveals His is Psalm 22:24, where He states “For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from him, but has heard, when he cried to Him.”

 David himself was so struck by this revelation that he prefaces it in verse 23 that all Israel should stand in awe and glorify God, a God who is like this.  You see, David was accustomed to the gods of the nations being a lot like the rest of us.  They liked the strong things.  The impressive things.  

But how great is the God revealed here in Psalm 22 who aligns Himself not only with the broken but the brokenness of the broken, or as He puts it here, the affliction of the afflicted (this idea is so important, we will address this specifically in another post!).  It is this declaration (among many in Scripture) that reveals God’s peculiar passion and protection of those who are afflicted.

The passage itself breaks into several sections, each displaying yet a new facet of the concern of God.  It begins with the strong declaration that He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.  While the two words are nearly synonymous, and certainly used together add emphasis to the statement, however, they do have slightly different intentions.  

To despise often has the sense of extreme disdain while abhor carries more typically visceral repulsion. There can be no question that the words chosen here as negative descriptions of God’s character were selected because most commonly they are the actual emotional reaction and responses to both affliction and the afflicted.  The use of the past tense in this verse actually strengthens the declaration, because it is proved to be a consistent display of God’s character in the past.  

As I’ve already mentioned, we’ll address the next phrase of the verse, ‘the affliction of the afflicted’ in another post, but just let us note here that neither the affliction with which a person is afflicted, nor their condition or state of being afflicted comes under God’s disapproval or loathing.  To add force to this, the next phrase, ‘and he has not hidden His face from him’ signifies both God’s pledge of personal attentiveness to those who are weak and broken, and His willingness to act on their behalf.  For to have God’s face upon him is to have His pleasure and His presence.  This He confirms positively in the final phrase “but has heard when He cried to Him”.  Here for the first time in our verse does God speak in the affirmative.  He hears when they cry.

It was less than four weeks following my collision with that young woman that I was in a special needs classroom where I had taken a summer job as an Assistant, and within that first week I shared with my Pastor that I thought  I now knew what God made me for.  The last twenty-five years have proved the accuracy of that early sensing of God’s purposes in my life.  They have also proved the very real privilege  of caring for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities!

We wrestled for some time with the title for this present post, wondering whether we should substitute the “must” for the awkward, but more accurate “get to”  regarding our privilege for caring for orphans who have special needs.  A privilege, because anytime God calls us to be like Him, it inevitably as David Livingstone, the great missionary to Africa understood, ceases to be a sacrifice.  

To love those whom God loves is not a must, or at least not a must alone, it is a distinct privilege.  It is not something we have to do, it is something we get to do.  

When I was a boy, I remember praying, “God give me a heart that loves what You love”.  It was several months after beginning to pray this, and I would pray it constantly, that God brought about an occasion that proved that my heart and God’s were vastly different.

 I was 17 years old, and walking down the hall of my high school reading the book of Isaiah (yes, I was then and still am a bit different!), when out of a room came sprinting a young woman who ran straight into me.  Both of us tumbled to the ground.  Backpack and Bible went flying.  We happened to fall in such a way that our faces were merely inches from each other, and we both looked up at each other at the same time, and I saw that she was from the special needs classroom, being cognitively impaired, and having severe facial deformities.  

In an instant, I was repulsed.  However in the very next moment, to repulsion was added a deep shame.  Here I had been reading in Isaiah of God’s excessive love for me in my vileness and sinfulness, and how He would remove my sins though they be like scarlet, and make them whiter than snow.  And yet I couldn’t even look on this young woman who through no fault or sin of her own bore what is in this world, the terrible affliction of uncomeliness.  

The contrast at that moment, stood so stark to me, that God was willing to look on me in the deformity of my soul, and see me as His beloved,  while I in my abhorrence assessed her a value that looked no deeper than her appearance.  

Part two to follow shortly.

Welcome to the inaugural posting for Special Hope Network.  As you may have seen from the About tab, we are a faith-based non-profit that believes we are specifically called to care and to love orphans and vulnerable children who have intellectual and developmental disabilities.

On a lighter note, we want to apologize from the beginning that this is the first blog we’ve ever written, and if it were not for our oldest daughter, we would not have read any others, either!  So if there are any blog protocols that we are missing, we beg your indulgence, as we wake up to the 21st century and put down our parchments for a time.  

The avoidance to this point of writing a blog was not in opposition to technology itself, but from the simple fact that we didn’t have anything unique or compelling to tell.  It is this change, however, in both our hearts and our calling that has moved us to begin typing.  But in order to describe who we are, what we feel God is calling us to do, how He is calling us to do it, we need to first describe why. 

And to understand that we must describe how God has been speaking to us from His Word.  For the next couple posts, at least, we’d like to take some time to look at the Scriptures where God addresses His peculiar concern, delight, and commitment to those who are orphaned, afflicted, broken and needy.   The verses, if you care to read ahead, can be found under the Scriptures tab, up above.

The first verse and the one we have taken to be God’s specific word for us is Proverbs 31:8-9, while Proverbs 31 is most typically and rightly known for its depiction of the godly wife, the first several verses of the chapter are still instructions to Solomon’s sons and princes of how they must rule in a way that honors and reflects the righteousness of the God of Israel.  

“Open your mouth for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the unfortunate.  Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.” (This is my own translation from the Hebrew in an attempt to make it more readable in the English.)

In the typical poetic style of the Proverb we see through repetition the significance and the importance of what the writer is trying to describe.  He begins with the affirmative “Open your mouth”, evidently, as this is repeated later, their time was not that different than ours,  it is easy to remain silent for those who are voiceless.  But this is the very reason why they are commanded to open their mouths.  It is the role of God’s people to speak for those who cannot speak, to love those who are not loved, to pursue the rights of those who have lacked justice. 

So the first thing we must do, and constantly do, is simply to speak, and tell the story of those who have no one else to speak for them, with undaunted persistance declare the reality of their lives, their loves, their losses, their hopes and their needs.

So, much of what you see Special Hope doing, and you’ll see on this blog and this website are their stories, as we open our mouths and tell you of a staggering numeric population segment of those who cannot speak for themselves.

But speaking, is but the beginning.  God has called us not merely to be storytellers for the broken of this world, but their defenders.  Thus the second half of the first clause, “for the rights of all the unfortunate”, to speak up and to declare and demand the needs and the rights of the unfortunate is nothing less than an act of justice. 

Conversely, Solomon is saying to remain silent as it regards those who cannot speak is to commit a grave injustice.  Which is why he echoes the phrase again, “open your mouth, judge righteously” to remind his sons that the pressures of this world, the demands of their own lives, and the clamoring needs of those who can speak and will demand more and more of the things they want. 

It will be difficult, he, seems to be telling them,  amid the clamoring crowd of needs, to open your mouth and judge righteously.  Many, there will be, who will defend the rights of the rich, the intelligent, and the capable, but in order to judge righteously, they must be The Defenders of the afflicted and the needy.

Now this might all sound like wonderful, grand rhetoric that fall into aphorisms like “honesty is the best policy” and the like.  The next passage, though, will point out how these acts of speaking, of defending the rights of the broken and needy are not merely ideological phrases but are at the very heart of what it means to know God.  And as we will see display the very nature of God, Himself.

Jeremiah 22:16 states “He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy: then it was well.  Is not that what it means to know me? ” (Unless noted otherwise, all Scripture texts are NASB.)

Here Jeremiah is reflecting on the contrasts between King Josiah and the King’s sons.  In summation of the life and activity of Josiah, he declares this: that he “pled the cause of the afflicted and the needy”.   Notice in this passage what was the result of a life described this way?  ”It was well”. 

Without apology Jeremiah is declaring that to act in the promotion of justice for those who are weak and needy directly resulted in the overflowing benefit to the nation as a whole.  But if that is not shocking enough, the final phrase certainly achieves it.  For he concludes, rather straightforwardly, “is that not what it means to know Me?”.  Here we see that the second clause that “it was well” was penultimate in Jeremiah’s estimation of what “pleading the cause of the afflicted and the needy” achieves. 

For if we do not do, like Josiah, the former (pleading the cause…), we can only have every expectation that we will miss the latter (we will not know Him!).   I’m sure many of you have already noticed a similarity between this verse and Jesus’ declaration in Matt. 25 that “when you’ve done it to the least of these, my brethren, you’ve done it unto me” and conversely “when you have not done it to the least of these,  you’ve not done it to me.”  So, too, here in our Jeremiah passage, Jeremiah is equating that an intimate knowledge and pursuit on behalf of the afflicted and the needy is tantamount to knowing and pursuing God Himself.

This is why none of us can miss out on speaking, pleading, defending, and pursuing the lives and concerns and hopes of the afflicted and the needy.   Of whom the most needy and overlooked are those children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.