As I write this, dripping sheets hang all over our bathroom, springs that look like they were important lay strewn across our floor—because on what was supposed to be a quiet Saturday morning, our washing machine broke. Mid-call with a customer service rep troubleshooting an entirely different problem with an entirely different device, the Saturday plans at the Brown house were disrupted by a broken mid-cycle washing machine.
By now, disruption has become a familiar friend to each of us. I know I’m not the first—nor will I be the last—to mention how the global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life as we knew it in March 2020. Routines, hobbies and habits all ground to a halt as each state put lockdown or stay-at-home orders in place.
God Often Uses Disruption
But though coronavirus may be new, the concept of disruption—whether from a global pandemic, broken washing machines, or relational strife—is not. As I read through the Old and New Testament, I’m continually struck by the disruption that seems to show up on every page. Some disruption is caused by evil and brokenness—like when all of a sudden the people of Israel are taken into exile. I bet that disrupted their dinner plans! Some are actually intentional disruptions, like Jesus calling Peter away from his fishing career with no time to update his LinkedIn or adjust his monthly budget. In fact, in the wilderness, we see that disruption actually appears to be more of the norm than the outlier. God almost seems to put Israel into a habit of unpredictable disruption by leading them with a cloud that moved at seemingly random intervals: sometimes after just one day and sometimes after years. Disruption is not foreign to scripture or to God’s people.
In many of these occasions, it seems that God uses precisely the disruption that we hate to jolt his people out of negative patterns—whether it be their blatant worship of idols or their comfortable but self-serving career paths. God does not waste these disruptions.
Photo credit: Curtis Adams on Pexels.com.
Disruption Invites Us to Pause and Listen
It’s easy for us to run through the discomfort of disruption—to rush to establish a new normal or try to get things back to the way they used to be, as soon as possible. And while our typical routines and habits may not be a bad thing to long for, what if God is calling us into something deeper? What if He has a rare, beautiful treasure for us in the middle of this disruption? As the organization I direct, The Banquet Network, strives to help churches include people with disabilities during this pandemic, the treasure I believe God’s shown me in the midst of this disruption is the gift of perspective.
Disruption Invites Us to Empathize
You see, while for many of us, quarantine and social distancing have rattled our routines and rhythms, these concepts are all too familiar to many in the disability community. Even in a world without a pandemic, 1 in 8 people with a disabilities spent less than 30 minutes a day with another person, and more than a third of people with disabilities cannot leave their homes. The new reality that many of us are experiencing for the first time is all too familiar for many families, who face inconceivable barriers to leave their homes on a typical day. We have a unique opportunity in this moment to gain a new perspective and to empathize with those 85% of people with disabilities who are always or often lonely.
Disruption Invites Us to Improve
Many of us are longing to be able to get back to the way things were in early 2020—to be able to return to our church gatherings, our hobbies and our friends. But let’s not miss the invitation in this disruption to stop and remember those for whom the world will not “open up” when shelter-in-place restrictions are lifted. What if we took this time to figure out ways that even now we could help to prepare for a world, church, community, and life that makes it possible for everyone to be able to join us in our church gatherings when we get back together? What if when we go back to our Sunday morning gatherings or our small groups, we didn’t just settle for going back to the way things used to be, but instead, we brought others with us? What if we made it our aim to not forget those 1.6 million Americans who are homebound, once we no longer are?
What is God inviting you to notice or learn in the midst of your disruption? What perspective can you bring with you even when you come out of quarantine?
A Prayer: Our God who Sees, Even as we grapple with the real challenges of quarantine, we ask for hearts that would pause and listen to what you might be teaching us in the middle of this disruption. Help us to take this chance to step back and look at our lives and community and see where you are calling us deeper. Lord, please use this time to re-shape our awareness of our communities and open our eyes to those we have overlooked so that when we “can” go back to our churches, everyone “can” join us. Amen.
*If you’re interested in finding ways for your church to prepare to welcome people with disabilities, we’d love to help. Reach out to us at info@thebanquetnetwork.com.
Hunter and Amberle Brown help lead an organization called The Banquet Network that is based in Baltimore, MD. The Banquet Network primarily works with church plants to inspire, equip, and resource them to reach people with disabilities who are on the margins of their communities. Hunter works full time at Goucher College and is a part-time Masters of Theology student at St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore. Amberle works full-time for World Relief, an international health and development NGO, and is passionate about helping churches include and reach people with disabilities based on her own experience of becoming visually impaired and her encounters with people with disabilities in her work in developing countries.
