where Orthodoxy meets the Mentally Disabled

disclaimer: i do admit that i may perhaps misunderstand terms that i use from time to time. it happens because i am a learning being myself. if such is the case, please feel free to correct me, but i ask that you would also forgive me.

i grew up with a younger sister. she's one of the most genuine people i know. she's almost always laughing and just enjoying life wherever she finds herself. she never acts of out spite, she never holds a grudge, she never speaks badly about you and she would never hate you. she loves being outside watching animals and soaking in the sun. she loves listening and dancing to music and she loves playing games. my sister is mentally, and somewhat physically, disabled. my sister and others like her, aren't what you would call 'normal'. living with them is not a walk in the park; it's demanding and it's draining at times. living with them is also invaluable.
normal people on the other hand are, well, normal. we prefer to interact and relate with normal people. it's less work to figure out how a normal person functions. its comfortable when you don't have to stretch your patience inorder to understand what they are trying to say. it's easy.

orthodox beliefs are a lot like normal people. we like orthodox beliefs because they are true. we like them because they are comfortable and secure; they confirm what we already believe. they don't rub us the wrong way and irritate us. we don't have to wrestle with them necessarily because for the most part they are pretty straight-forward so all we have to do is accept them, respect them. they're easy. i find, however, that normal people, in the face of one mentally disabled, can be inadequate at times. in this same way, i find that orthodoxy can also be inadequate at times in the face of liberalism and (dare i say it) perhaps even some heresy.
but how can truth be inadequate to a lie? valid question, however, i don't think that it breaks down that simple. if we look at our parallel with normal people and disabled people, what we find is quite remarkable. they are both human. they are people. except one is harder to engage. its less conventional and it takes more time and effort to make a connection and reach a level of closeness. this is what i have found from living with my sister. she has a different way about her, yes, but more often then not i find myself the one learning from her. if one takes the time to engage and spend themselves to get to know someone who is disabled, that person will find they will learn deeper truths about life then if they sat in a classroom for twenty years. the same can be true for someone who is willing to take the time to engage those ideas, however liberal they are. chances are there is some nugget of truth buried deep inside and wrestling with it will help that person enearth the orthodoxy within the liberalism or heresy.
i am not saying to throw away orthodoxy, it is in fact truth. but in the same way that you would respect a disabled person as a human, as much as a normal person, respect the liberal idea like the orthodox idea, often there is a deep truth in there.
no one is arrogant enough to say that they fully understand life. do not be so arrogant to say that orthodoxy cannot expand, allow your beliefs to be challenged, questioned, doubted. wrestle with those thoughts less orthordox then you're used to, guaranteed you'll find your new orthodoxy stronger than your old.
living with my sister i have learned that life lessons and truths can be learned from the most unlikely of people. always realizing that no matter how disabled, they are still people with lessons to teach. and no matter how normal i am, i am still a broken man with lessons to be learned.