Down Syndrome, Suffering, and Grace

A recent study says that ninety-two percent of women who discover they are carrying a child with Down syndrome opt to abort the pregnancy.

I am not a parent, much less a parent of a child who will have a lifelong disability.  I can only imagine the feelings and thoughts that contribute to this 'choice'.  I imagine that fear of the unknown plays a role, for many of these parents who make this choice do not know people with Down syndrome.  I imagine that people are fearful of financial strain and the extra challenges that families with Down syndrome face.  I imagine, though, mostly a fear of suffering is involved.

For what parent wants to have his or her child suffer?  And, truth be told, men, women, and children with Down syndrome do suffer.  Oh, not to the terrible degree that doctors have described to parents since before Down syndrome even had a name, while convincing them to institutionalize their children in the past or abort them nowadays.  In fact, even while sharing with me their painful struggles related to their disability and the hurt and pain caused by mistreatment and abuse inflicted by others upon them, often, the men and women I have known with Down syndrome do not view themselves as having suffered any more than anyone else.   But it is a myth that people with Down syndrome are happier than other people.  

It's interesting.  From the world's view, while the purpose of suffering is debatable and the origin often ignored, the answer to suffering always seems to be to end it- even if the way to end it involves ending the life of the one that is suffering.   

Suffering seems to be a potent force in the lives of believers, as well.  For some, suffering seems to turn them away from God, from even the very idea of God, in frustration and mistrust.  While for others, suffering seems to be the cause for hoping in God for answers and comfort.

I do not have all the answers for suffering nor all the answers for those who will soon parent a child with Down syndrome.  God gives many answers in Scripture, but I haven't found them all.  But I have found some.

I am convinced that suffering exists, for instance, because it is a natural consequence to sin having entered the world.  But I am also convinced that God is a God of redemption, Who not only forgives sinners, but redeems the suffering sin has inflicted upon us.  Romans 8:28 says that God works all things for good for those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.

This includes Down syndrome.  For those who are saved, God works Down syndrome for good.

It is very, very true that people with Down syndrome and their families will face hardships unique to that particular developmental disability.  But it is also true that for those families and people with Down syndrome, God's grace will be made perfect in that weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)  It is easy to see the lows and the struggles that Down syndrome will bring.  But soon to be parents have no idea the grace and mercy that God will bring to them through their child.  

Nor do we, the Church, realize what we are missing when we are missing children and adults with Down syndrome in our congregations.  People with Down syndrome have unique gifts and callings that the Church needs- many that have nothing to do with their Down syndrome, for people with Down syndrome are so much more than their disability!  And we are certainly missing the way God brings redemption to Down syndrome and the good He causes through it.

So, this second to last paragraph is more an exhortation to myself, since I have been lacking in this area, but feel free to receive it for yourself, also.  Instead of simply condemning parents who are considering the choice to terminate the life of their unborn child who has Down syndrome, embrace those parents before the choice has been made and make room for them and their child in the Church.  And for those parents who have already made that tragic, sinful choice to abort, as God calls them to repentance, offer them the grace and mercy of the Cross that has been offered to you.  Forgive them and love them.

Down syndrome is in itself not a gift.  But, as all 'syndromes', sicknesses, and disabilities, when redeemed by the Redeemer, Down syndrome becomes a way that the very glory of God is revealed.  

Genetic Testing and Family Planning

A video on genetic testing.

Listen carefully to what Devin's mother says.  Had she known she were a carrier for Fragile X Syndrome, she would have had her eggs fertilized outside of her womb, tested, and implanted only healthy eggs.  This son whom she obviously loves and adores would not have been born.  She would rather have his just forming life destroyed than let him be born with a disability.

This is what we are doing with the gift of genetic testing?  Reverting to eugenics- from which the science of genetics evolved?  What kind of people can reason like this?

Oh, that's right.  All of us.

The human heart is deceitful and desperately sick.  (Jeremiah 17:9)  We live in sin and obey the devil, the one at work in the sons of disobedience.  We've all lived that way, following the inclinations of our sinful nature.  By our very nature, we are subject to God's wrath.  (Ephesians 2:1-3)

God says to take tender care of the weak.  (1 Thessalonias 5:14)  He commands we learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, and plead the widow's cause. (Isaiah 1:17)

But we don't do it, and so God's justice demands consequences.  The wages of sin is death.  (Romans 6:23)  But, God in His great mercy, sent His Son as a propitiation, to absorb the wrath of God and to suffer our consequences.  The good news is that, God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinning Christ died for us.  And now all who repent and believe in Christ and his work on the cross will be saved.  (Romans 3:21-26, Mark 1:15)

We're then given a new nature.  No longer children of wrath, we are children of God.  (Romans 8:15, Titus 3:7), heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), given His righteousness (1 Corinthinas 1:30).  And, now, we're told to renew our minds (Ephesians 2:23).

So, we don't reason like Devin's mom anymore.  With our renewed minds, we know that as God knit Devin in his mother's womb, Devin's form was not hidden from God.  God knew Devin had Fragile X Syndrome.  And, yet, Devin was fearfully and wonderfully made, a wonderful work.  How precious are God's thoughts toward Devin!  And Devin's mother.  (Psalm 139:13-16)

And also with our renewed minds, as we now seek God and His ways, we do as He commands.  We stand up for the weak, needy, poor, oppressed, and the very, very tiny.  We love justice.  We show the hope of God to Devin's mom and to Devin.

We don't let murder in the name of genetic testing just happen.  We do something about it.  

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.  (Proverbs 14:12)

John Piper On Pain and Suffering

Another thought on suffering

The Grace of God

"My grace is sufficient. My power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)

It's so painful to watch my mother suffer. She is constant physical pain. Her mobility is limited, and she has lost some of her independence. In addition, her husband of 34 years past away a year ago. Her grief is great. Sometimes I wonder why God continues to allow her to be beaten down again and again.

Not often, but sometimes, I also look at my own sufferings and wonder why and how much longer I have to struggle with all of the addictions and temptations and 'issues' in my life.
John, in this first video, makes this statement, "He determines what time we would be born, what age, what year, what geographical location, and works all things together in order for us to have a circumstance which we might cry out to Him." I am not saying this is the answer to all suffering. But it's an answer that makes sense to me.

This past year I have been living in the sufficiency of God's grace. Before this year I didn't really understand what God meant by the idea of His grace being sufficient. But I've learned that, for me, it's crying out to God in my weakest moments of addiction and temptation and, in turn, God walking with me through them. He grants me power to get through each moment of struggle. And in spending so much time with Him in vulnerable honesty, I'm beginning to know Him intimately, to recognize His voice, His Truth, His Character, and His presence. So, maybe, that a reason He lets me suffer.

Maybe something like this is happening with my mother and God, too. Either way, I have to learn to trust in the grace of God.