Capernaum: a Gift to the Body of Christ

Guest post by Joni Eareckson Tada

We are thrilled that Joni Eareckson Tada will be joining us at our YL Capernaum Pre-conference at YL75

The body of Christ in America is in need of some muscle toning, as of late. Confessing our weaknesses to one another – as well as our sins – really rubs us the wrong way. It goes against our American spirit of individualism. We like ‘going it alone,’ being independent and pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, thank you. Besides, it’s embarrassing to ask for help. And we secretly feel put upon if we are forced to extend that help.

Then along comes a person with a disability. It could be a kid with Down syndrome who plops himself next to us in church, or a teenager with cerebral palsy who asks for our help in a restroom. And suddenly, we are confronted with needs, visceral and urgent. If we look away and ignore the need, then we are ignoring the pleas of Christ to recognize ‘weak members’ as indispensable and to look for the gifts in the midst of the needs.

This is what I love about Young Life Capernaum. It celebrates the God-sent strength that comes in weakness. It presses us up against the needs of young people who live on the visceral, urgent edge of life, and invites us to get involved. Capernaum exposes our tendency to live like a Lone Ranger or a maverick. It eats away at individualism like corrosive acid.

Capernaum shows that Christ’s body parts simply cannot go it alone, for we are spiritually connected. We belong to Christ and to one another. We are all members of the same Body. And that’s always good. That’s needful. It keeps our personal relationship with Christ from becoming too, well…personal. Too private, too individual, and too set apart from the rest of the Body. Never is Christianity just me and Jesus. It is me getting engaged in a caring, irregular, untidy spiritual community. A community where weaknesses are exposed, as well as welcomed… a community where we all see ourselves as “the least of these.”

When typical high school kids pair up with young people with disabilities, it shows the world that sacrificial service is what God expects of us and there is joy found in the midst of serving. When we look out for others’ interests before our own, we begin to discover our place in the Body of Christ.

Young Life Capernaum sets the stage for the weak and the strong to lay claim upon each other. Christians should not be autonomous individuals who hand-pick their social contacts anyway. Rather, in Young Life Capernaum, when kids find themselves thrown together; when they are asked to share each other’s burdens, they gladly discover mutuality in the Body of Christ.

For example, I’m a quadriplegic, and God designed my disability not to make me ‘independent,’ but ‘interdependent.’ At times, it means my friends must blow my nose, empty my leg bag, and wipe my backside. Yes it’s untidy and, yes, it forces my friends to do messy, inconvenient things. But it gives me a chance to express thanks, to show love and gratitude, and to pray for them.

The same is true when typically developing kids help with their Capernaum friend’s needs, whether wiping drool or feeding a kid spaghetti. Powerful community is forged in such relationships, showing us all the extent to which Christ went to embrace us in our messiness. It’s what binds the family of Christ together.

So go ahead, staff and volunteers at Capernaum: tear off the lid on love; lob the agape-grenade and blow apart the orderly social compartments that separate God’s children. Be the flannel graph for the rest of the church, and showcase what it means to be joined to one another. Display the heaven-sent joy that happens when the weak and the strong defer to each other. Bear the burdens of a kid with special needs, and let those with disabilities bear yours.

In short, show us how beautiful and graceful the Body of Jesus really is. You do it every day at Young Life Capernaum and for that, I am deeply grateful to God!

Joni Eareckson Tada, the founder and CEO of Joni and Friends International Disability Center, is an international advocate for people with disabilities.  A diving accident in 1967 left Joni Eareckson, then 17, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. After two years of rehabilitation, she emerged with new skills and a fresh determination to help others in similar situations.  She founded Joni and Friends in 1979 to provide Christ-centered programs to special-needs families, as well as training to churches. Joni and her husband Ken were married in 1982 and reside in Calabasas, California.  You can learn more about Joni’s ministry at www.joniandfriends.org.

© Joni Eareckson Tada, 2015