The bustle of Christmas and the Advent season are felt deeply in the offices of churches and Christian ministries around the world. In the midst of planning services, putting on choir concerts, and hosting women’s teas, there are hospital calls, pastoral visits and year-end giving campaigns. We are battling to balance productivity with meaningful reflection and the celebration of Jesus’ coming — both within ourselves and among those we serve.
In this season that beckons us to find and follow our Savior, people with dementia and intellectual-developmental disabilities have life-transforming things to teach us about discipleship. For these friends, checking things off a task list has little allure and stirs no sense of pressure. What is happening in any particular moment is all that matters. Our friends with cognitive disabilities are completely present to the person and situation in front of them.
In an interview about his book, Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefulness and Gentle Discipleship, Dr. John Swinton suggests that things like brain injury can teach us to slow down and experience the simple joys of giving and receiving love in the moment. The disability allows opportunity to engage with someone on a level that makes it easier for us to set aside expectations and our desire to see something produced out of the relationship. “And that,” Dr. Swinton emphasizes, “is love!”
1 John 4:7
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
During this Thanksgiving and Christmas season, I am grateful for what my own daughter, Carly, is teaching me about slowing down and being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Carly is a non-verbal 21-year-old who experiences profound disabilities. It can be difficult to know what she understands about God. But, make no mistake, the Holy Spirit knows her language and is speaking truth and love into her soul. Despite her limitations, Carly reminds me that being a disciple is profoundly simple. It is about following Jesus and experiencing love—because love is from God.
My own assurance of salvation and sense of worth can be mistakenly measured by my abilities, accomplishments and self-confidence. The enemy uses these things to keep me busy, hurried and distracted from Jesus.
When I’m with Carly, I am required to slow down. And in that slowing down—in our exchange of unconditional love together—the presence, power and goodness of God become acutely tangible. I see Jesus so clearly in those holy moments—those “pregnant pauses” of life.
Will you join me in slowing down during this precious season and seeking God’s pacing in the new year?
Joy to the world, Lord—You have come!
Let us receive You, our King.
We confess, Your love is a wonder we are often too busy to appreciate or share.
Let every heart prepare You room.
And may all of heaven and nature sing as we celebrate You!
Lisa Jamieson is a caregiver coach, speaker and author of books and Bible studies. Her Finding Glory series of resources and children’s book on prayer called Jesus, Let’s Talk are popular among special needs families. She is co-founder of Walk Right In Ministries and leads the Minnesota Disability Ministry Connection. Lisa and her husband, Larry, have been married over 30 years and have three grown daughters. Their daughter, Carly, has Angelman Syndrome and lives at home with them in Maple Grove, Minnesota.
