I have long thought about this. I could see the purpose for it but he way that is done now (it’s goals) and the purpose just didn’t make sense and the goals that it accomplishes don’t either.

As a parent of 3 disabled children who are now adults who are NO BETTER OFF from being in Special Education (the standard way), I think that it is time that we redefined Special Education and accomplish some real, usable and life sustaining goals.

Currently the goal of Special Education is to meet or exceed the established standards and get people all of the way through school and then it stops. But all of my kids prove that there needs to be more to it. Yes, they all graduated from High School but they can’t move on in life. Are there more? Yes I’m sure that there are.

Were they helped by Special Education? Clearly not or they would be moving on.

What’s missing?

We are currently good at getting them through the established school process but we do nothing to get them through life and life is what they have to live for many years after school and that is where they need the help!

Yeah they do need help to get though schoo. but there is much more to life after school. Instead we are helping the process but not the people.

Will the handicap still exist beyond the Educational process? Yes. Are we addressing that? No.

Caring about Special Education means that we must care for and prepare people for life where they are. Are any of my 3 boys better off or better people because of Special Education? No. Do I know what to do about it? No.

Then our current methods have failed.

I asked a good, well educated friend of mine “Why do you think that Churches don’t accept disabled people?” and he said “I don’t know”. This man is a Christian and he’s very highly educated but he had no clue. It’s very important to him and he spends his life trying to change that but he had no clue from his education, interactions or anything else.

But I think that I finally understand because of something that God has taught me. I think that it is because they know NOTHING AT ALL about these people or their disabilities and they want NOTHING to do with them because they are different.

Case in point: Normal people (who are ONLY normal by society’s standards) NEVER spend any time with handicapped people so they don’t know them or what they can or can’t do.

My friend and his wife do and I NEVER feel like a handicapped person around them, rather I can just be me and that’s ok. Am I handicapped? Well I can’t walk so I guess I am but that never makes any difference with them. Are they my friends? Yes. So what’s the problem?

It’s an issue of Societal Status.

Contact with handicapped people is NOT OK with society. Handicapped people are NOT OK with society. In fact they’re looked down on by society so their value is much lower and if you’re associating with lower valued people then you are grouped in with them.

Gee this is just like people complaining to Jesus about always spending time with sinners.

So for us to depend on Biblical knowledge is not going to work because people can sing songs, volunteer, give money and pray and go to Church and disregard handicapped people because they’re handicapped. No this goes much deeper than Biblical knowledge, it goes to the heart.

There is no clear answer to this that I know of but it’s not the Church as much as it is society.

Something has happened that I was not anticipating or expecting.

Yesterday I went to the area around La Habra to Viola University to participate in a class for a friend of mine. I left at 1 and got home at 8.

It was a long way away.

That is not normal for me to do. Help the teachers with a class? I am more used to teaching a class so that everyone would evaluate me rather than just being a participant with nothing to offer to a bunch of young people who might learn something, but I did it.

At first my friend addressed the class and then the class split into three groups and met with each of us (there were three of us) to listen to us, ask questions, and after a certain time they changed groups and when it was done I was highly satisfied.

How incredible that God could use me in my current state to help other people?

Isn’t that my whole goal?

Yes it is but I didn’t anticipate that I would be meeting a goal at all. I thought that I was just “helping a friend”, I didn’t know that I would be helping others and myself but I was!

My whole reason for sharing this is twofold. 1 that you would be willing to help others and 2 that you would see that God can, will and does use anything to accomplish His will.

So don’t be afraid to try things!

Absolutely everything that we do from birth to death on this Earth is designed to make us The Best.

Not surprisingly Satan thought that he was The Best. That’s why God threw him out of Heaven.

But God being God gave him the Earth to run. And so we think that we have to be The Best.

Gee, don’t paragraphs 2 and 3 sound similar?

Bottom line is that God, our Father is The Best. Always was, is and always will be.

So what can we as Humans do?

Well, first of all we have to accept that, then we have to get in line behind God, know that it is NOT our job to try and do better, know that He’s there and accept His blessings.

If people would just do that then life would be much better for everyone. But that’s always been the case.

It’s OUR choice and this is OUR life.

From the time we are born (or before) we are taught, evaluated and told that we are the most important person that there is.

Then at some point we are supposed to evaluate God and decide whether or not we are going to follow Him.

Now think about that for a moment.

We are born and taught, evaluated and told that we are the most important person then we evaluate God (who is NOT more important than we are) and decide on our own with an untold number of influences that He is more important than we are?

I don’t think so.

If that were true then why did He establish works in advance for us to do and know that we would do them?

Who’s game is this anyway?

The world tells us that it’s ours.

But who’s will is being done?

Gods.

During OUR game?

Uh oh. It’s not really our game is it? No it’s not. But at some point we do choose whether or not we are going to follow Him and that determines OUR future, but Heaven or Hell there WILL BE A FUTURE!

So remember that we live for Him and that should guide ALL that we do.

Yesterday morning I went to Church and the pastor was preaching on when God met Jacob and they wrestled all night.

Now think about that one minute.

God came to where Jacob was and met with him to build Jacobs faith.

Why?

I don’t know God’s mind but in my mind (which God gave me) it was to meet Jacob on his terms to accomplish something.

Why would the almighty God need to meet anyone on their terms just to accomplish anything? Didn’t He create the world and other things?

Yes He did.

And He knows just what is needed, and Jacob needed this.

There are probably many other ways that He could have built up Jacob’s faith but God knew that this would work.

We need to be realizing this too.

God is our Father and He does the right things for us too.

As Humans our view of Christ, the son of God is extremely limited. More than we realize. We picture Him as handsome & perfect. But Isaiah, a prophet of God said something very different:
Isaiah 53:2-5
2 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
3 He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
4 But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
5 But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.

That is totally different than we think. Sounds like somewhat of a loser to me, but He died for my sins?

Our view is totally different because all we “see” is on the outside of the person, the looks. But all God sees is our heart.

Which makes sense because all of our things (pictures, characters, etc.) depicts just what we see and so that makes us happy.

But Isaiah (who couldn’t see Him like we can’t) described Him very differently than we are comfortable with.

And for some religions people who do good things are voted in as Saints and people pray to them.

Is this the way things are?

Well, I’m not God but it doesn’t make much sense to me. And it doesn’t agree with the Isaiah (a prophet of God) said.

So possibly we should reevaluate our view of Christ.

Think. I do a lot of that.

Yesterday I went and listened to my friend preach. And when he was preaching he told a story that really got me thinking.

He talked about having a horse where he lived. He said that it was a normal horse but there was one thing that the horse did very well more than anything else. The horse was extremely regular with his poop and that he had a specific cart that he used to clean up the corral. He talked abut how full the cart got as he cleaned up the corral and mentioned that when he was done his cart was very full but he couldn’t be proud.

He mentioned that his righteousness was about as worthy as his cart full of horse poop-in other words, not too great but normal. And that got me to thinking.

God has continually used people who were nothing to brag about to accomplish His will. To name just a few of them I’ll start with Adam & Eve who were not obedient to Moses who had a speech impediment to Jesus who was unknown by the people He made and very poor to Paul who made it a proud habit to kill Christians. So yes God used many unworthy people to accomplish His goals.

Now why do you suppose He did that? Because He knew that it would work out well.

Are people like that? No. They look at things as they see them and they look for perfection only. And if they don’t see perfection they decide that it won’t work and they either move on or give up but they definitely change their minds.

Funny, but God didn’t do that.

And people have either not noticed that God didn’t do that or something else because they decide or evaluate and move on.

95% of handicapped adults are not allowed in Churches. Why not? Don’t they believe or didn’t God make them? They may and He did.

So what’s the problem? Humans aren’t God and faith doesn’t even come into it at all. They just decide based on what they can see. Gee this sounds familiar: “Did He really say that you would die?”

So, my thought on all of this is that it’s not right because we’re not God. But you will decide on your own.

Just remember that as of this point in time 95% of handicapped adults are not allowed in Churches.