humbled

We have a young man in our church who is profoundly autistic. His hands and limbs don't work as they should. He can barely talk. I think one of the very few words (perhaps the only one) he can say is "Bye", but he makes the most of it! He often rocks back and forth and rhythmically hums. We might say that nothing in his body really works as it should.

Recently, he has been given a keyboard on which he can communicate better than through his mouth. However, it is still arduous labor for him to write ANYTHING on that keyboard. He struggles for a long time before he gets something out.

We are at camp and he is joining us this week. During campfire, I was asking the kids to tell me about God Sightings. At one point, this young man attempted to share a thought. He only got a "J" out though, so I said I would come back to him. It was not until the end of campfire that he got his whole thought out.

Would you like to know what he wrote?

It wasn't "Life sucks."

It wasn't "I hate my body."

It wasn't "I'm frustrated."

This is what he wrote: "Jesus is good."

When his mother read it to us, tears sprang into my eyes. If this young man whose body does not work, who has to struggle in agony to convey a single, simple thought is not complaining but saying that Jesus is good, then I am humbled. I complain daily about so many less significant things than he deals constantly. This young man taught me last night that God is good even when life is difficult. Simple faith. Not elaborated or complicated. Just "Jesus is good."

Thank you, Lord.