Welcome To The Well…
At The Bottom Of The Well and The Well Dwellers Podcast, or what I sometimes just call “The Well”, is a space for blogging and podcasting about disability, dignity, and hope. Whether you find yourself at the bottom, climbing out of the depths, or even drawing up from the top of the well, I hope this might also be a place for you to find belonging and promise.
I suppose it starts in a story that I grew up with long ago which has and continues to deeply resonate with my life experiences. It is a well-known story about a Jewish family. Particularly, a young man named Joseph, his father Jacob, and his many brothers. If you have not heard it before, you can listen to it HERE.
But to make the story short… Joseph was heavily favored by his father, Jacob. His brothers became very jealous of him and soon plotted for his death. They would lower him eventually into a dried up old well with thoughts of leaving him there to die.
Of course, there is more to the story. It is far from over and often tempting to want to skip ahead in Joseph’s journey of life to more promising times But it is here in the well that I find myself wanting to pause and reflect.
How long do you suppose he was left there down at the bottom of that well? What must it have been like for Joseph staring up into the sky helplessly from the bottom of this dark and closed in well? Did he feel like he was alone, forgotten, imprisoned? That this could quite possibly be his life’s end, and he found himself wishing he could simply end it even more quickly to avoid prolonged suffering? How must he have felt about his family, the world, and God? What did he confront, wrestle with, or feel deep down in his own identity, dignity, and life – his sense of success, failure, and loss? Did he have any hope?
I have been in a wheelchair since injuring my spinal cord in a car accident in 1994 at the age of 15. Over the last several decades I have experienced life both within and out of the bottom of the well while asking many of the same related questions Joseph did centuries ago. If I were to offer three lenses to shape these lifelong questions, they would be:
1. What does the concept and language of disability mean to me and others? (Read More HERE)
2. Where can we find dignity in our lives and sense of personhood?
3. How can we nurture hope for today and the future?
That is where this conversation is beginning… At The Bottom Of The Well. There are no promises as to where this journey might take us. And in some of these postings, it may just be ramblings of my own internal wrestling. But I have felt a real need for our society to grow more aware of what it means to be disabled in the eyes of God. To find a greater voice in the dignity of the disabled life and to see the glory of God within it. And to help those with physical disabilities to find a gospel of hope that offers promise in the life of today and not just in the resurrection to come.
