Arthur

Arthur's mind and body do not work in unison. He is confined to a wheel chair, is missing an arm and both legs, and his remaining arm barely does what he wants it to--his hand is permanently curled under, his elbow is permanently bent, and no amount of ballet classes could ever help it to move in a fluid, graceful motion again. Oh, and did I mention his mouth will not form the words his brain tells it to? (He has a double-sided laminated piece of paper--one side has symbles for how he is feeling/common needs, and the other has the alphabets and numbers 0-9 so he can spell out what he wants to say).
I don't know how long Arthur's body has been like this or how it got that way. In fact I just met him in the post office today. But in the course of 5 minutes, I did find out that he knows my friend, Rebecca, who helps people with disabilities to have work places that can accomodate them (what an awesome service!). In that same five minutes I saw him turn smiles on nearly ever face in a room full of impatient folks waiting to send off their mail before hitting the road to head home from work for the weekend (not an easy feat, mind you!) Arthur was able to do this because he was smiling.
Can you imagine if you had a body that did not allow you type over 10 wpm as you chat away with your friends or if you mouth was unable to form more than a simple syllable that sounds something like "uhr"? I don't know that I would be out at the post office making others smile! But Arthur has some source of joy that maybe I don't have. Or perhaps I just don't tap into that source as I should.
Tonight I will be (have already been) thinking about what brings me joy and what I allow to take away my joy (there are too many things if I am honest). I will be praying that my joy will be founded on a source that is solid, unshakeable, namely Jesus whose death and resurrection is the most profound source of joy I can think of. I hope to be impacted more deeply by that in the coming days so that my joy may be full.

*********
As an aftethought to this post, I have been struck with the reminder that Arthur's body (and my body for that matter) is not all that there is. That's why someone can have joy even when they are trapped inside of a body that won't even let them speak the words that are damming up in their mind. There is a reality that is even greater than my own body...which is pretty "real" considering I have never known anything other than this!
Paul, at the end of the first letter he wrote to Christians in the city of Corinth, reminds his readers that there is a hope which is the reason for living the way he speaks of in the prior chapters. That hope is founded on Christ's death as the satisfaction of God's just wrath for our rebellion against him, and his resurrection is something we can look to for proof that one day we--our bodies--will be resurrected. Dust isn't the end! But, what is even better than dust not being the end is that the bodies we have now will pass away (to dust), but will then be brought back in the form of new bodies which are not perishable, which will never return to dust. And these bodies are our outfit for eternity. (If this sounds bogus to you, read the reference at the end of this post before completely writing off what I am saying).
There is reality beyond this body, it is an imperishable, "resurrection body", and--going beyond that--there is the reality that those who believe in the significance attributed to Jesus's death and resurrection in the New Testament will be with the one who created this body and the one to come for eternity! (For more on this, see 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5).