Guest blogger Tony D’Orazio is the co-founder of Jacob’s Ladder Special Needs Fitness and author of Down Right Joy. Read Part One here.

Sara, Amanda and Jake

The administrative assistant for our Jacob’s Ladder group is a young lady named Sara. Sara is very smart and kind, has a good sense of humor, is technical, knows about social media and is a college graduate. She serves Jacob’s Ladder well, and also works with another nonprofit called Youth Challenge that serves people with physical disabilities like herself. Sara does not let having CP and being in a wheelchair restrict her. In fact, she teaches exercise classes to others in wheelchairs, and is helping me a lot in learning about exercises for this population. Jacob’s Ladder needs Sara; where would we be without her?

Another person in my fitness group is Amanda. I guess she has some developmental delays, but her social skills and awareness of others is simply “off the charts.” Amanda will periodically send me encouraging texts out of the blue, but not too often. She recently got my favorite kind of cookies for my birthday. We have paid for her to become one of our fitness instructors along with Jake. She is now running our Tuesday evening Zoom fitness classes. We frankly need Amanda for what we are doing.

So, here are two examples of people with special needs. NO, these are people with special gifts serving others, and in both cases doing it for Jesus!

I have another story that is much more personal and every bit as beautiful as the two stories above. This happened recently.

Our son Jake is now 21 and we have our own group Jacob’s Ladder Special Needs Fitness that serves individuals with disabilities in the area of fitness and Christian fellowship. Jake himself is a certified group fitness instructor, as well as a certified boxing instructor for people with Down syndrome. He seems to have an uncanny, excellent sense of just how functional the others are in his exercise group. For example, he never throws a weighted ball too hard to a student. He just seems to “get it!”

He also serves in the Christ Church children’s ministry on Sundays, working with the younger preschool children. About a month ago, the director of the children’s ministries approached me, as I sat just outside the main worship area in the church. She said, “I have to tell you a story about Jacob.” I was immediately concerned, and thought to myself that maybe he acted inappropriately or said something he should not have. But I said nothing, and she continued, “Yesterday at church, a family came up to me with their three-year old daughter. She is normally very nervous to come into the preschool area, but this Sunday she walked in very confidently. Her dad shared with me that she had been talking about Jacob all week, and sure enough, she walked right over to Jacob. We love having Jacob volunteer with our preschoolers! He does such a great job and always is joyful and brings a smile to all of our faces!”

Well, I immediately thought that the Lord should beat me with a hose for thinking Jacob had acted incorrectly, then almost cried out loud right there. Later, I thought about what my wife Karen said many years ago about Jake. She went from, “Why me God” to “How did I get so lucky to have this guy?!”

Our son was using his gifts to serve others. There are MANY more stories like these.

So, without these individuals in our lives and in our world, we are clearly missing something that is truly special. We are missing part of our humanity, as the geneticist tells us.

Photo credit: Ability Ministry on disabilityisbeautiful.com.

But wait, there is more!

Throughout the epistles in the New Testament, we are continually reminded and exhorted to use the gifts God has given us to serve others. Maybe one of the best examples of this is in Romans 12: 4-7, where Paul clearly tells us to use our gifts:

“Just as each of you has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve, if it is teaching let him teach, if it is encouraging, let him encourage….”

Is it possible that without these individuals and others in the community of people with all disabilities and special needs, we not only are missing part of humanity, but are literally missing part of the body of Christ? If our children have the ability to sense the needs of others in ways that are better than some “typical” people, we are missing this gift. If people with Down syndrome and other disabilities truly use their special gifts to serve others, there is a gap in what is being provided each time we don’t allow them to live, thrive and to serve others.

In 1 Corinthians 12:12, Paul tells us, referring to the body of Christ and the church, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body, so it is with Christ.”

In 1 Corinthians 12: 21-22, Paul is once again talking about the body of Christ here on earth, and refers specifically to certain parts of the body that may seem as unnecessary or not needed. Could some of these body parts represent individuals in the community of people with disabilities that we so easily discard, underrate and for whom we have low expectations? Verse 22 challenges this low view of people with disabilities: “On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.”

Yes, indispensable, just like all the people in the community of people with disabilities and special needs.

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