Matthew 25:40: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
A couple of weeks ago we recognised Disability Sunday. It’s an opportunity to be intentional about disability awareness, and celebrate and encourage people with disabilities in their gifts and ministries. I came across a story that made me reflect on this, and the power of kindness and inclusivity.
Glenys and Keith live in Norfolk, and decided to travel a couple of hours to visit their daughter in London. I’ve never met either of them, but I found their story posted in an online support group that Glenys and I are both a part of. Keith is in a wheelchair, and requires special accommodations for his mobility. Here’s what Glenys wrote:
So I went to London last weekend to see my daughter. We went to check in at our hotel room with a hoist for my disabled husband. The room had been given to someone else who was not disabled.
After two hours, we were given the keys once they had moved those people to another room. We quickly dropped our bags off and went to the station to travel to south London to my daughter.
By now, of course, it was rush hour. Ever travelled in the London rush hour? With a wheelchair? After three stops, my phone beeped to say the lift was out of action at the station we were heading to, so we got off at the next stop and asked for help. We eventually got to my daughter’s home.
We didn’t get back to our hotel until after 11pm. We got ready for bed and I went to hoist my husband, but after lifting one inch the hoist stopped: no power. So I let the hoist take his weight and moved him to the edge of the bed, climbed up behind him, and with a leg either side of him, sort of rowed him up the bed with him pushing. Then I got dressed and went to reception for help. For the next two hours, they searched the hotel for the charger.
At about 1:30am they produced a charger, which I plugged in. But in the morning when I went to use it, the hoist lifted him up, but then ran out of charge and wouldn’t lower him. So, I moved him across the room to his wheelchair and used the hoist’s emergency stop to lower and effectively drop him into his chair.
We had a nice day at the London Zoo, but I was so tired that we hailed a wheelchair taxi. The ramp got Keith in the car but wouldn’t fold up, so cue one irate taxi driver who used swear words I had never heard. Eventually, the ramp folded and we drove off to the river where we took a boat to Tower Hill.
We had nice meal upstairs in a restaurant, but on the way down the lift wouldn’t work. We had planned a leisurely walk to Liverpool Street Station but by the time the lift worked we had to pick up the pace.
We went to use the lift to reach platform level, and it broke down. We pushed the emergency button. The lift took us back up then stopped again, so we used the emergency button again. This time the lift dropped about six inches really fast.
I had been okay up to this point – exhausted, but happy. When the lift dropped it was such a shock, I found I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying. It was all mixed up.
We got on the train, and I took an aspirin and my nitro spray and sat there not saying a word. I just wanted to get back home.
And that, folks, is how I ended up with back pain from my London trip. My doctor thinks I may have had a TIA at the station, but I am okay – just tired and in pain.
A TIA, or transient ischemic attack, is a stroke that lasts only a few minutes. It happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is briefly interrupted – probably when the lift Glenys and Keith were in dropped so suddenly.
There were lots of comments on Glenys’ post, offering sympathy: Poor you, how awful, you were more gracious than I would have been, and so on. But Glenys wasn’t discouraged by her ordeal.
I am happy, just exhausted. I found such joy in the kindness of strangers. Big business let us down, but ordinary people stepped up and were kind. Ordinary people stepped forward with genuine offers of assistance, which for me was quite powerful.
I felt God was saying, “I am with you. I will never leave you.”
We did actually have a lovely weekend, despite everything. Everything that could go wrong went wrong, but people were so kind at every turn that it filled my heart with joy. Ordinary people were just so kind and helpful everywhere we went that I felt really boosted by the love shown from complete strangers.
Keith is very laid back. He doesn’t waste his energy on getting upset. We just try to find a way together. We are used to having to plan where the access is better, but when so many things went wrong, people were so very kind coming forward with offers of help. Even in the rush hour at Canary Wharf, a man in a very expensive suit, who looked exhausted after a long week, lifted his head when he saw the wheelchair and asked how he could help. As long as people look out for one another, we will get through life.
Do you know how many times it says to be kind in the Bible?
“Kindness” is mentioned in over two-hundred instances, and “kind” over four-hundred times. Kindness comes from inside. It’s love for others and a desire for their well-being.
As Disability Sunday was approaching, I did a bit of thinking about that.
People keep repeating that we are made in God’s image to affirm different types of bodies and physicalities. But where does that leave us “less than perfect” people? Is it really talking about God’s physical image? I think we are all made in God’s spiritual image, meaning we all have that something special, that likeness of God inside us. Our job is to connect with it and act on it.
Glenys did. The people she connected with did – well, maybe not the taxi driver – but overwhelmingly, what could have been a shattering experience, even though it left her tired and sore, was spiritually and emotionally uplifting and reviving.
“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” it says in James.
Speaking as someone with a fairly short fuse and an inability to suffer fools gladly, I am on a personal quest to be in control of my own knee-jerk reactions. Inspired by Glenys, I’m monitoring my own reactions to events.
Oh, please, don’t judge me when I lose my rag over people dumping their cars in the middle of the car park, or leaving the cathedral doors open with the heaters on. Just know that I am trying to follow Glenys’ example, and already I’m proud of my interaction with the self checkout at the supermarket the other day.
I think I’d like to have Glenys and Keith for friends. I’d bet that every time I called on them, I’d come away buoyed up and rejuvenated.
Psalm 118 says “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Let’s go out into the world and be glad in it.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
Matthew 25:40: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
A couple of weeks ago we recognised Disability Sunday. It’s an opportunity to be intentional about disability awareness, and celebrate and encourage people with disabilities in their gifts and ministries. I came across a story that made me reflect on this, and the power of kindness and inclusivity.
Glenys and Keith live in Norfolk, and decided to travel a couple of hours to visit their daughter in London. I’ve never met either of them, but I found their story posted in an online support group that Glenys and I are both a part of. Keith is in a wheelchair, and requires special accommodations for his mobility. Here’s what Glenys wrote:
So I went to London last weekend to see my daughter. We went to check in at our hotel room with a hoist for my disabled husband. The room had been given to someone else who was not disabled.
After two hours, we were given the keys once they had moved those people to another room. We quickly dropped our bags off and went to the station to travel to south London to my daughter.
By now, of course, it was rush hour. Ever travelled in the London rush hour? With a wheelchair? After three stops, my phone beeped to say the lift was out of action at the station we were heading to, so we got off at the next stop and asked for help. We eventually got to my daughter’s home.
We didn’t get back to our hotel until after 11pm. We got ready for bed and I went to hoist my husband, but after lifting one inch the hoist stopped: no power. So I let the hoist take his weight and moved him to the edge of the bed, climbed up behind him, and with a leg either side of him, sort of rowed him up the bed with him pushing. Then I got dressed and went to reception for help. For the next two hours, they searched the hotel for the charger.
At about 1:30am they produced a charger, which I plugged in. But in the morning when I went to use it, the hoist lifted him up, but then ran out of charge and wouldn’t lower him. So, I moved him across the room to his wheelchair and used the hoist’s emergency stop to lower and effectively drop him into his chair.
We had a nice day at the London Zoo, but I was so tired that we hailed a wheelchair taxi. The ramp got Keith in the car but wouldn’t fold up, so cue one irate taxi driver who used swear words I had never heard. Eventually, the ramp folded and we drove off to the river where we took a boat to Tower Hill.
We had nice meal upstairs in a restaurant, but on the way down the lift wouldn’t work. We had planned a leisurely walk to Liverpool Street Station but by the time the lift worked we had to pick up the pace.
We went to use the lift to reach platform level, and it broke down. We pushed the emergency button. The lift took us back up then stopped again, so we used the emergency button again. This time the lift dropped about six inches really fast.
I had been okay up to this point – exhausted, but happy. When the lift dropped it was such a shock, I found I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying. It was all mixed up.
We got on the train, and I took an aspirin and my nitro spray and sat there not saying a word. I just wanted to get back home.
And that, folks, is how I ended up with back pain from my London trip. My doctor thinks I may have had a TIA at the station, but I am okay – just tired and in pain.
A TIA, or transient ischemic attack, is a stroke that lasts only a few minutes. It happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is briefly interrupted – probably when the lift Glenys and Keith were in dropped so suddenly.
There were lots of comments on Glenys’ post, offering sympathy: Poor you, how awful, you were more gracious than I would have been, and so on. But Glenys wasn’t discouraged by her ordeal.
I am happy, just exhausted. I found such joy in the kindness of strangers. Big business let us down, but ordinary people stepped up and were kind. Ordinary people stepped forward with genuine offers of assistance, which for me was quite powerful.
I felt God was saying, “I am with you. I will never leave you.”
We did actually have a lovely weekend, despite everything. Everything that could go wrong went wrong, but people were so kind at every turn that it filled my heart with joy. Ordinary people were just so kind and helpful everywhere we went that I felt really boosted by the love shown from complete strangers.
Keith is very laid back. He doesn’t waste his energy on getting upset. We just try to find a way together. We are used to having to plan where the access is better, but when so many things went wrong, people were so very kind coming forward with offers of help. Even in the rush hour at Canary Wharf, a man in a very expensive suit, who looked exhausted after a long week, lifted his head when he saw the wheelchair and asked how he could help. As long as people look out for one another, we will get through life.
Do you know how many times it says to be kind in the Bible?
“Kindness” is mentioned in over two-hundred instances, and “kind” over four-hundred times. Kindness comes from inside. It’s love for others and a desire for their well-being.
As Disability Sunday was approaching, I did a bit of thinking about that.
People keep repeating that we are made in God’s image to affirm different types of bodies and physicalities. But where does that leave us “less than perfect” people? Is it really talking about God’s physical image? I think we are all made in God’s spiritual image, meaning we all have that something special, that likeness of God inside us. Our job is to connect with it and act on it.
Glenys did. The people she connected with did – well, maybe not the taxi driver – but overwhelmingly, what could have been a shattering experience, even though it left her tired and sore, was spiritually and emotionally uplifting and reviving.
“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” it says in James.
Speaking as someone with a fairly short fuse and an inability to suffer fools gladly, I am on a personal quest to be in control of my own knee-jerk reactions. Inspired by Glenys, I’m monitoring my own reactions to events.
Oh, please, don’t judge me when I lose my rag over people dumping their cars in the middle of the car park, or leaving the cathedral doors open with the heaters on. Just know that I am trying to follow Glenys’ example, and already I’m proud of my interaction with the self checkout at the supermarket the other day.
I think I’d like to have Glenys and Keith for friends. I’d bet that every time I called on them, I’d come away buoyed up and rejuvenated.
Psalm 118 says “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Let’s go out into the world and be glad in it.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
