"Why, God, why?"

There is nothing that puts Life into perspective quite as jarringly as an unexpected death. That happened to a neighboring family here recently. The impact of a death is only intensified when those involved are just at the threshold of adulthood.

When one reaches young adulthood, the blood, sweat, and tears investments in growth and development have been made, the bulk of schooling and training is complete, and it seems as though there "ought to be" a season for establishing one's place in the Divine Order of Things. Death does not belong on the schedule. But it happens.

That life-perspective slammed into my life at the age of 20. It was a consequence of a drunk driver, two lanes left of center, slamming into my brother's car.  One day I had a brother; the next day I did not, at least not in this earthly space-time dimension.

Much of the next week has since slipped into foggy, healed-over memories. But some things remain clear. For one, apparently I did not meet other's standards of grieving properly. I remember an aunt saying, "It just hasn't hit Emily yet." I suppose she wanted more public tears like my brother's school friends, but part of me was experiencing relief from the incessant teasing. Horrible to feel relief perhaps, but true nonetheless. The controlling effect of his teasing was one of those things that my parents were oblivious to, but while he was alive, I certainly was not going to whine about it and be told to toughen up! And after his death, it was easy to let it go.

Such absurdities, paradoxes, and oxymora as relief in the mix of emotion seem to be, if not normal, at least common when Death comes to claim a young adult. And in a struggle to make sense of the senseless comes the universal question, "Why, God, why?"

Questioning is a part of the grieving process. When my brother was killed, my mother's first words were, "The LORD giveth, and the LORD taketh away." Unsurprisingly, that Jobian response did not satisfy my dad. I don't think it would satisfy most people. And the way my mother said it was out of context with the way Job had pronounced it. Previously he had torn his robe, shaved his head, and fallen to the ground in worship. (Job 1:4,5) My mom had turned that verse into a platitude.

Over the years, I have learned a thing or two about platitudes. They should be accepted more with the idea that the speaker is at a loss for words than as advice. A lot of bromides suck at giving advice. Here is another one that is frequently heard at funerals:  "No one knows the ways of God," or its counterpart, "God works in mysterious ways."

Yes and No. 

Yes, scripture does say, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts, Isaiah 55:9." 
But since Isaiah's day, the Holy Spirit has been sent to Earth to enlighten us. Jesus predicted this:
Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." John 13:7

How thin the veil

We are allowed to have answers! In fact, if the information is crucial to our salvation, I think God has obligated Himself to tell us. But more than obligation, God desires to make Himself known. He is willing to talk to a seeking heart. Of course, communication is a two-way street.

When my brother died, I asked God why. I wanted His perspective on it. Some of the answers, (yes, there was more than one reason,) were surprising to me, some were a deeper development of things I already knew, and some were none of my business!

• God "told" me, (and this "told" was an inner witness or knowing that came during a time of prayer,) that the main reason that my brother died at that time was between Him and my brother, it was a relationship thing that was none of my business, so He was not going to answer that part. Even though this was a non-answer in some regards, it made me love and respect God more because it showed that he can be trusted with personal information. I am grateful that He explained why He wasn't answering, and I learned a lot about why some prayers don't appear to get answered.

• There was a second "non-answer answer" too. The same inner witness showed me that the reason could be revealed someday; He wasn't hiding it on purpose but that he could not explain algebra problems when I was still working on the basics of addition.  That was over 40 years ago. I had a similar conversation with God recently and the answer was He could not explain calculus when I'm just now mastering long division… I guess that is progress! 

• One answer was reflective, but involved my mother, so I don't feel at liberty to discuss it in an Internet blog.

• The chief "teachable moment" answer for me at that point in time was profound. I had already had some teaching and read a book on the importance of our words. God really expects His kids to respect and weigh their words. Jesus will never be able to trust us to reign on the Earth if we keep spouting off every idle thought that floats through our heads. He also expects us to keep our word:   Promised is promised.

The night my brother was killed, my mother had said, "Be home early." He replied, "I will be home by 10, mom." Notice how he had set his own boundary; this was not a curfew under someone else's authority. Yet at 10 o'clock that night, instead of honoring his promise to his mother, he headed out of town to help a new friend. A noble goal, but a broken promise. In those days, he would have had to use a pay phone to call home, but he did not, even though he walked past one on the way to his car. The Holy Spirit explained to me that this broken promise had restricted his guardian angel's ability to help him.
If that does "not seem fair" to you, let me remind you that this was only one facet of a complex structure—one element in a perfect storm, so to speak. But this was the part of the greater picture that I needed to heed; the part that I could learn from so that my brother's life was not-quite-as-much in vain.

God then said that these reasons should be sufficient, and indeed they were. Since then, I have come to realize that I could have pressed in and asked for more, and he would have answered; but I also know God is more pleased by accepting some things on faith without my having to have details.

Writing this blog has been my "Algebra Moment." I'm being graduated from long division to a better understanding of the workings of God, but I'm humble enough to know that my astrophysics level is still very far away! Living is a process. Things have been brought into a perspective that I could have no way grasped four decades ago.  And again, I would not have been writing this today if it had not been for Lane DeCicco. I am sure that he had no clue that he would be used to give a neighbor, whom he may not even have remembered ever meeting, a deeper appreciation for the complexities of the workings of God.

The UN's Convention on the Rights of the Disabled — A Double Edge Sword

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

Sounds nice, doesn't it? What heartless soul could be against the UN codifying rights for the disabled? Keep reading, and if I make my point effectively, that person will be YOU!

Of course, the under-informed will call you heartless; in reality, you will have gained the wisdom needed to identify a two-edged sword. And the CPRD is truly a double-edged sword that curses our nation, even as it attempts to bless the disabled.  It is a paradox, but with a stated goal of helping the needy, it puts us deeper into ungodly control and bondage.

First, a bit of boring history:
The CRPD was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 13, 2006. It took a year and a half, until May 3, 2008, for 20 nations to ratify it, at which time it went into effect in those countries.  President Obama signed the CRPD on July 30, 2009, but because the Senate never ratified it, it has not gone into effect in the US. Technically, the U.S. Senate could vote to ratify this treaty at any time.

But before you jump in and squeal, "Those politicians just don't care about the disabled!" let's review some of the fine print. Because when you do, you will discover that it is not about caring at all. It is about power over others. The disabled are being used as pawns to manipulate Western society's human compassion into a peaceful surrender of human rights.

1.  The UN treaty requires that all American law that deals with disabilities be conformed to the standards of the UN. This means that a body of people, most of whom did not grow up in America and whose native cultures have different standards of what is normal will be the judges of our laws dealing with the disabled.  This may seem "fair" on the surface, but hang on…

2. Subversion of Authority. Article 4(1)(e) remands that “every person, organization, or private enterprise” must eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability.  This is a wild over-reach of power that not even God demands from His servants! It actually is in direct opposition to the Word of God on at least two levels. (a) Jesus taught that we should discriminate, in a good way, and show extra kindness to those in need, and (b) to ratify this this treaty would be saying that we agree with making the United Nations tyrants over us.

But Jesus called them over and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and their superiors act like tyrants over them.  But it shall not be so among you… Matthew 20:25, 26a

And did you catch that part of the quote above where the treaty says "every person?"  Let me explain how that works: You may think that a globalist body, even if they have access to all your cell phone conversations and data, isn't going to be micro-managing your personal life, but that phrase will be used to "make examples" of a few unfortunate souls in order to keep the masses in line. It will lead to propaganda and public brainwashing that will deceive many into making idols out of ungodly mandates. You will be surrounded by people who think that way.

3. Education. The satanic deception in this area is to use the "good idol" of education to achieve the surrender of God-ordained parental rights.  Article 7(2) of the CRPD gives the government—acting under UN directives—complete oversight in determining what is "best" for all children with disabilities. This means that a government panel in some city miles away that has never seen the disabled child will have more say-so over the path of that child's education than his parents do. This is so ungodly! The scriptures clearly state that responsibility lies with the parents. This means that parents will often be thrown into a conundrum where obeying the Lord will mean they must oppose the government.
Current American law is pretty good; our federal law requires public schools to offer special assistance to children with disabilities. But we also have the safeguard that no parent is required to accept such assistance! Parents have the legal option of choosing alternative therapies, private schools, or homeschooling, which can often better accommodate individual needs.  Under CRPD, it would be a matter of only a few years before parents would be ordered to accept the program offered by the government school, a situation which openly discriminates against parental rights!  In the early decades of the UN, any document such as this one would have included a statement recognizing parental rights. CRPD does not.

4. The Pocketbook.  You must realize that when the United Nations says "international cooperation," it really means that the wealthier countries must give the poor ones a free ride.  Under the dictates of Article 4(2), the United States will be obligated to fund programs for disabilities in foreign nations.

This is something that many Americans would probably want to do anyway, BUT Americans wouldn't be able to select which countries or have much oversight to ensure that fraud is minimized. It would be handing over our taxpayer's money to organizations with histories of abuse of funds. 

Not only would CRPD use American money overseas without American oversight, but we would also be told how we must spend our own money here at home.  Article 4(2) requires the United States to use its "maximum resources" for compliance with UN standards.  On record, in the past, the UN has looked at other countries budgets and told them that they are spending too much money on military programs and not enough on social programs.  If you haven't figured this out yet, then let me put it more plainly: This is a deceptive, long-term strategy to pressure nations to disarm and weaken their national security under the false pretext of helping the disabled.
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United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is indeed a two-edged sword, both blessing and cursing.  However, the two blades are not equal in their acuity. The propaganda machines of the media make it easy to see the blessing side, but they hide the cursing side that will slowly rob us of our freedoms of self-determination.

One final point that I did not include in the list above is a "boiling frog" curse—one that can happen so slowly that it is hard to notice and therefore it is hard to show the evidence that this is happening. The structure of the CRPD is such that any lawsuits which arise because of it are likely to be "resolved" by taking power away from state legislatures and putting the authority at the federal level.  With the disabled, especially with disabled children, this is a disaster. Those decisions are almost always better made at the lower levels; the more local the better. But the CRPD takes it the other direction.

Currently, President Trump is being petitioned to toss the CRPD out along with other documents that Obama signed. It will be a blessing for disabled Americans if he does.