The Handicap Zone

James 2: 14-17What good is it my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith, but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, Go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill,and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead (NRSV).                                                                                                                                                                                             

Again, we had to drive to a far corner of the parking lot because there were no spaces near the door. I maneuvered hubby’s walker out of the trunk and set it up for his use. We slowly worked our way toward the building. Ontario law requires parking spaces be set aside for people with special needs. These spaces are at a premium and most days they are unavailable. My hubby, recovering from hip replacement surgery, only needed a handicapped-parking sticker for a few months. Other people aren’t so blessed. Their parking stickers last for a lifetime.

Is the world besieged with the disabled? No, not at all. Able-bodied people like us take up their spaces. We tell ourselves our little errand is so important. We rationalize that we’ll only be in the store for a minute. To a person in a wheel chair, a minute is a lifetime. We have opportunities to be like Jesus every day. Let’s take advantage of them.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us. Give us the gumption to walk an extra few feet so that someone else may be blessed with a little freedom. Amen

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  1. 1234aussie said:

    to focus on the scriptural part of your post a lot of people make the mistake of calling baptism a work and they may get around to it if not inconvient ‘i believe that all that is necessary for salvation’ but Jesus said you must be born again MEANING to be baptised for the remission of your sins and then endure untill the end the same shall be saved .show your faith by your works feed the poor etc.

    November 14, 2011
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  2. Rev. Tim Lehmann said:

    I would also like to remind people tempted to park in these spaces that it’s not just that they are closer to the entrance, they are also wider. It’s the extra width that make s them so valuable to people who use walkers and wheel chairs. Take a minute some day to watch someone in a chair getting out of a car and then try to imagine them doing this in a standard parking slot. Let’s keep them free for those who really need them.

    November 14, 2011
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