Read this and ponder — one to keep in mind.<\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
Garret’s arms twist at sharp angles. His eyes, vacant and
\nunfocused, stare fixedly away into a void, veiled windows to a soul
\nsuddenly plunged into primordial darkness. His brain fires primeval
\ncharges summoned from deep within the
\ntohu wa bohu,<\/i> his body tensing and releasing with their
\nstaccato rhythm. Slowly the seizure subsides and he comes back, my
\nlittle boy again inhabiting the body that betrayed him.<\/p>\n
Nothing messes with your theology more than your own child’s
\ndisability. My boy has “epilepsy and apraxia of speech”: a diagnosis
\nthat tells me what I already know, that he has seizures and can’t
\nprocess language. We communicate with some halting words, some signs,
\nsome pantomime. We medicate and wonder when the seizures will strike
\nagain, if they will ever cease.\n<\/p>\n
In the dark watches of the night my soul cries out to the Lord: If
\nhe “cannot hear, how can the preacher share the good news with him,” to
\nfollow up on St. Paul’s vexing question in Romans 10? What is “faith”
\nfor a boy with a miswired brain? What is “hope” for the man whose
\nheritage is shattered by rogue synaptic currents no one can control or
\npredict?<\/p>\n
Jaideep’s arms twist at sharp angles. His eyes, vacant and
\nunfocused, stare fixedly into a void. His brain fires its last chaotic
\ncharge, the death rattle shuddering to a stop. Born on the trash heaps
\nof Mumbai, dysentery and malnutrition absorb him into their hoary
\nembrace. He lived and died a Hindu without hearing of the carpenter
\nfrom Nazareth. <\/p>\n
Where were faith, hope and love for this
\neikon<\/i> of God? Is he any less precious than my epileptic apraxic boy? <\/p>\n
God
\nof the mucky stable afterbirth, bearer of sharp-glassed leather on bare
\nback, wearer of spit and thorns, whose arms were twisted at sharp
\nangles fastened with nails, abandoned, god-forsaken Son with agonized
\ncry for eternalperichoretic dance interrupted by Death’s convulsions:
\nhow will you redeem this suffering? Do you hear Garret and Jaideep’s
\ncries?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read this and ponder — one to keep in mind. Garret’s arms twist at sharp angles. His eyes, vacant and unfocused, stare fixedly away into a void, veiled windows to a soul suddenly plunged into primordial darkness. His brain fires primeval charges summoned from deep within the tohu wa bohu, his body tensing and releasing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-problems-for-faith"],"yoast_head":"\n