God Has a Great Purpose for Your Life
I spent the better part of my morning rummaging through old issues of Kerygma Magazine. There’s this story about a disabled girl I was looking for.
I can’t recall what her disability was. All I remember is that she can’t move around like a normal person does. What was remarkable about her was that she blesses so many people from her bed. She is a prayer warrior. People text her their petitions and she prays for them. That’s what she spends most of her waking time on.
I wasn’t able to find the article. It’s a good thing this month’s (May 2012) issue of Kerygma featured another amazing girl with a disability, Jessica Cox. Jessica was born without any arms but she can do everything a person with hands can do. More than that, she plays the piano, has 2 black belts in Taekwondo and is listed in Guinness as the first armless person to get a pilot’s certification. (I have two hands and forearms and triceps and biceps and I can’t do any of that.)
In the KMag article by Tess Atienza, Jessica admitted she did go through times when she questioned God and pitied herself. If I remember right, the other girl did too. But they did not waste their time whining about their lot, throwing tantrums when they can’t have their way (read in the article how Jessica dealt creatively with her desire to have a TV) and cursing the womb that bore them. Instead they rose above their disabilities to serve as inspiration to others.
Lesson 1 of Bo Sanchez’s book Love Someone Today is “God Has a Great Purpose for Your Life.” God has a plan for you no matter what shape or form or color or status you were brought into this world. Just look at these two girls.
Bo said: “I believe your most important purpose is to be one with God – because from your oneness with God, you’ll be able to share His love to the world through the gifts and talents He has given you.” No matter how physically, economically, emotionally challenged you are, YOU HAVE A GIFT AND A PURPOSE.
Some friends and I faced a challenge this week via a barrage of text messages. I’ve said it before and I say it again: God uses ingenious ways (yes, even exasperation) to inspire my blogs. These are some thoughts He prodded me to write:
The acceptance of your disability, character flaw or misfortune in life is the start of accepting yourself. Once you learn to accept yourself, you can start “fulfilling God’s design for your life.” The feeling of rejection comes from focusing on your neediness for other people’s acceptance.
When you look beyond yourself and serve others with joy, other people will naturally gravitate to you. A person who exudes love for others is easy to like and difficult to reject. Looking outward (what can I do to make other people happy) instead of looking inward (what should other people do to make me happy) is the key to acceptance and the antidote to rejection.
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Join a weekly Prayer Meeting (such as The Feast) and Small Groups for personal discipleship.
Obey God’s Word by reading the Bible every day. You may use the assigned Mass Readings of the day or read 3 chapters of the Bible daily.
Yield to the Holy Spirit so you can share Jesus to others.”
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By the way, thank you Jennet (one of the cyber-friends I mentioned in my last blog) . I made this Strawberry Cheesecake with the luscious strawberries you sent.
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I found the KMag article (April 2007) I was looking for thanks to Tess who also wrote it. The differently-abled girl's name is Ann Martha Padilla and she has cerebral palsy. She is “a prayer warrior of the Regina Rosarii Contemplative Association.”
Like Jessica, she uses her toes to do things particularly texting her advice to the many people who send her messages. She said, “I would ask God what he wanted me to do given my condition.” Through her disability, she is performing God’s great purpose for her life – to “offer encouragement and prayer for His troubled people.”
Photo of Jessica from Jessica Cox Motivational Services http://rightfooted.com/photos/
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