Thread by @jsparkblog

Someone needs to hear this. Your value cannot rest on your usefulness. No one must prove to be a cornerstone of their community, a pillar of their people, a positive net worth, to be a whole person or to be treated as one. You have value apart from what you do. #ableism

Those who contribute are pouring out of given resources in an environment they did not choose by generational accomplishments they did not earn. They’re to be applauded, but not inherently worth more than others & not to be rewarded for passing on the blessing they received.

We are not tethered to our gifts, our purpose, our utility. We are called to do good, but not because it makes us good. Not to earn a point value. The good we do is an extension of the grace we were gifted. To do good is simply good in itself, just as you are too.

I have sat with so many patients who are disabled, had their livelihoods taken by disease and disaster, who cannot produce or create or move the way they had wanted.
Is there no hope for them? Are they doomed to a second rate life, a fate of failed dreams, a perpetual plan B?

I believe they matter. They feel joy, pain, heaven, & heartache as much as you or me. They have worth apart from the world’s deadlines & demands. They are more than all that has happened to them. You are not merely “useful.” You matter. You bear permanence. An image of grace.

It is a bonus to be able to live your dream.
It is a blessing to create, contribute, lead.
But to achieve or fail these things does not make you gold or glass.
You are marked by grace, by glory, by an image not of what you do, but simply you.
#ableism #mentalhealth