OUR CAPACITY TO SAY “I lack nothing” is formed by the presence of the shepherds with whom we have belonged. It’s the shepherds in your life—people in roles of caregiving, leadership, and authority—whose presence has primed your nervous system toward tightfisted fear or openhanded joy. Your past experiences of safety and connection with others—or the lack thereof—have shaped your nervous system’s capacity for connection and calm.
Perhaps one of the most vulnerable & dangerous areas today a person with disabilities finds themselves is in the care of the Canadian healthcare system. With the rise of short staffing due to lack of hiring, unpreparedness & lack of education, along with a ableism driven culture of euthanasia; the loss of trusting one’s health security is increasing stress while impacting wholistic healing. The feeling of “lack” in the disabled community’s healthcare is greatly increasing & therefore changing the societal narrative towards fear & abandonment.
In early history, the church filled this gap of care for the disabled, orphaned, & abandoned. But in the modern era have left such actions for a gnostic (knowledge based) moralism teaching while depending on institutional governance to provide healthcare needs.
So, when the governing healthcare sector fails, how might the marginalized & disabled re-ignite the soul of the church to begin care for the vulnerably disabled again? When will the “shepherds” hear the call of the Spirit to step down from the pulpit & enter the home of the “unclean” once again?!
