Meet the Author – Stephanie Hubach

Stephanie Hubach is a wonderful human being, a talented writer and a passionate advocate for those involved in disability ministry and for parents with special needs children.  It has been my joy to get to know her.  This week she was kind enough to let me interview her for my blog

Besides being a mom, wife, writer, leader in the disability movement, speaker, etc, what do you do that brings you joy and maybe some relaxation?

I love being together with our family and friends. We love to host gatherings of friends on our back porch when Pennsylvania weather allows! We have a new granddaughter this year, and as we say at our house, “We are over the moon, for Caroline June!” As far as places to go and things to do, I love to be on the water with our friends and family. My favorite places are to be out in our boat on the Chesapeake Bay, on the lake in Maine where Fred’s family owns a cabin, or at the beach (the farther South, the better…!) I’ve always enjoyed reading. When I was a child I always stated that as my favorite hobby. It still is my go-to for relaxation.

What is the most important thing you would like the church to know about people with disabilities in their congregation?

Ask God to give you the perspective to see every member of the body of Christ through the lens of a positive sense of expectancy. What can you learn from that person? How are their gifts uniquely packaged? How can you serve that person in a way that fosters their flourishing? What does their life demonstrate to you about the truths of the gospel and the power of God’s transformational work in every believer? If I could add another equally important thing, it would be to remember that every person’s deepest core need is to experience God’s saving grace through Christ in their lives. Often, the pathway to meeting that greatest core need is through the pathway of meeting tangible and relational needs. (There’s some great material on this concept in Tim Keller’s Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road.)

What positive changes have you seen since you first wrote your book related to the church and its approach to people with disability?

Many more churches are becoming self-reflective in this arena. I say “becoming” because it is not a “once and done” process. It is an ongoing process. Congregations are asking themselves questions about welcoming and belonging, and what that looks like for people with disabilities in their congregation and in their communities. There has been a powerful movement of the Spirit of God in the last decade in many churches when it comes to awakening a sense of responsibility to embrace people with disabilities as Christ did.

How do you define disability?

Disability has two aspects—a functional aspect and a social aspect. The functional dimension has to do with the impairment itself—the part of the body that doesn’t work the way we expect it to. The social dimension has to do with how we treat people with impairments in such a way that they are disabled much further than the impairment itself. Both parts together compose the experience of disability.

Your laugh is infectious.  How has humor been a part of your journey with disability in your family?

I love to laugh. It just gives me a lot of joy. I grew up in a family that has a quirky sense of humor and I’ve always had fun finding humor in things that other folks just don’t seem to see the same way. God has given me the gift of humor to keep me from taking myself (and life) too seriously—which I am prone to do at times. When our boys were growing up, there were many times that certain things would happen and I felt like ripping my hair out! But, I could sometimes remind myself, “This will probably be funny someday! Maybe not right now. Maybe not even next week. But someday!” The funniest stories in life are often only funny in the rear-view mirror. But when we have enough distance, we can laugh at our circumstances and ourselves. When we remember that God is ultimately in charge, and not us, that helps us to lighten up and laugh at the craziness of our lives. Those in the disability community who can laugh at themselves and the absurdities of life often just seem to do better. I imagine that Jesus, even as a Man of Sorrows, also had a wholehearted laugh at the appropriate times too.

Stephanie’s highly influential and impactful book, Same Lake, Different Boat was just released in a newly revised and updated edition with two extra chapters.