These thoughts came out of this morning’s service at church (https://www.citizenchurch.org.uk/) – but non-Bible people please read on – this is just about a deeper understanding of the people we work with.
The sermon was based around the account in the Bible of Jesus healing a paralyzed man (Luke 5 v17-25 for Bible people). A group of friends are so desperate to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus through the crowds, that they carry him up to the roof of the building Jesus is in and lower him through it. And Jesus heals him. What does that have to do with the people we work with? Well…
Firstly, in those days if you had a disability like this, the view was that somehow this was your fault, a punishment for something bad you’d done. As a result, you would be excluded from society, from church, from working – and it would be hard to feel like anyone cared, hard to feel like you had any sort of future.
One would hope that we have moved on from attitudes like this – but the truth is that many people do feel unnecessary, without any hope for the future, and if you are poor or on benefits, there is still an attitude that this is somehow your fault. This is the sort of stigma that many of the Purple Shoots clients have to battle against in order to get their enterprising ideas off the ground, in addition to all the other issues that not having enough money cause. I think it takes real courage on their part – and that sort of grit and determination is what gives them a real chance of success.
The other interesting thing in this account is that in healing him, Jesus tells him to pick up his mat (equivalent of our wheelchairs I suppose) and take it with him. He didn’t need it anymore – so why take it? It was because his whole story was valid and unique and worth telling others – his past brokenness wasn’t something to pretend had never happened, but something he could use and build on. I try to tell as many stories as I can about our borrowers – they are all unique and an inspiration to other people battling with the same issues. If you haven’t watched our videos or read our case studies, check them out.
And as a postscript, if you do read the story in the Bible, notice the first word that Jesus says to the paralyzed man…
