Category Archives: Christian Courier

Christmas may not look the same for me now that I’m blind, but it means even more than it used to. My memories of the season are blurred around the edges – the powder-white world is a little more grey, the sparkle of stars a little less bright – and while the lights of the Christmas tree still shine, they dim a little more with each passing year. But although I cannot see the lights, I’ve found the same joy shining in other ways.

It’s a joy that comes alive in the scent of cinnamon-topped sugar cookies, the squeak of freshly fallen snow underfoot, and the sound of a church filled with voices singing “Silent Night” on Christmas Eve. It’s a joy that rises above the holiday bustle and settles into the quiet spaces where the steady presence of Emmanuel shines through the darkness, inviting us into the quiet wonder of God with us.
Continue reading “Finding Peace Where the Light Shines”

I have a confession to make: I am a bitter disabled person. The media’s portrayal of people with disabilities had me believing that I’d forever be classified as either inspirational simply for existing, or pitied for being a helpless, worst-case scenario come to life. Add social media to the mix as a young adult, and the seed of bitterness that had been sown as a six-year-old cancer survivor was fed, watered and growing rapidly in my heart.
Continue reading “A Bitter Confession”

I received my first Bible when I was seven years old. It arrived book by book as each volume was produced in Braille. The first were the Gospel of Matthew and Acts of the Apostles, and I read them voraciously until the next ones arrived. When they did, I stood back and gazed admiringly at my bookshelf, four cubes housing the entirety of God’s Word in a format I could read all by myself.
Continue reading “Would You Pay $900 for a Bible?”

When a close friend began to follow the teachings of a faith healing ministry in Texas, I was guarded and suspicious. I had a vague idea of what they would say – that disability was the result of sin and if you prayed hard enough, you could be healed – but I was shocked by how unapologetically they preached their message. But more than that, a wrenching fear gripped me: would my friend adopt these beliefs? Would this change how she saw my disabled body?
Continue reading “The Prosperity Gospel Hates Disabled People, But God Doesn’t”

Ableism had left its mark on my disabled body long before I knew its name. As hard as I scrubbed, I couldn’t rid myself from the sticky residue on my skin, or remove the thorn that pierced clear through to my bones. It was a part of me as much as Jesus was, but I had no awareness that the ableism that stung the most came from those who claimed to love Jesus, too.
Continue reading “Is Christianity Ableist?”