As students currently pursuing senior theses, we understand that research is often viewed as a means to make someone “normal,” or to fix some disability that is seen as a “problem.” We’re aiming not to discourage research but to encourage the right mindset of how to go about it. The view of research as a means through which we “fix” people often invalidates the feelings and suffering of those with disabilities and deficits. In Psalms, we often see David crying out to God, being honest about his frustrations and doubts, but still trusting in Him. From a Christian perspective, we should see people, note and appreciate the unseen, and validate feelings with the end goal of using research as a way to serve them better, and not simply “fix” them. We will examine the mindset that should guide inquiry, highlighting service, holistic care, and unique insights gained from studying disabilities. By appreciating the beauty in the hidden complexity of each person, we can move towards a more thoughtful approach, one in which we inspire not just learners to study the body, but to ponder how to practically apply this mindset in different fields of research.
A quick 15-minute address on the underlying motif of beauty within French culture and their desperate need for the Gospel as we enjoy traditional French hors d'oeuvres.
The people of France have so strayed from the true source of beauty, pursuing a temporal, fading ideal.Only about 1% of France is evangelical. France desperately needs to know the God from whom all beauty flows. Come to understand that current state of France and how a culture so famously rich in worldly beauty is so starved of the only beauty that lasts.
Various experiences and opportunities through Community Engagement work have allowed students the unique privilege of meeting diverse groups of people, hearing stories of beauty, and seeing where the work of justice is being done in communities around us. Join us for an interactive experience as we engage with these stories and these communities, looking at where we have seen the image of God reflected in the faces of others and in their experiences. Explore how there is beauty in diverse stories and how we experience the beauty of a relationship with a Savior who "not only became one of the actually poor and marginalized, he stood in the place of all those of us in spiritual poverty and bankruptcy (Matthew 5:3) and paid our debt. Now that is a thing of beauty. To take that into the center of your life and heart will make you one of the just" (Keller, 2010, 188).
