Week 6 – Lent series 2026

Lent, Stories | March 25, 2026

As we draw closer to Lent, we take the opportunity to reflect with Ruth Bryce, Senior Disability Inclusion Advisor at CBM Australia. 

At CBM Ruth works alongside Organisations of People with Disabilities (OPDs) and the communities they represent. She recalls the way in which partnership opens doors for people with disabilities to lead, advise and decide, and draws parallels with the way Jesus chose to walk, teach and lead. 

“During my recent work alongside the National Disability Forum, an organisation lead by people with disabilities in the Solomon Islands, I got to witness how CBM’s approach of partnering together opens doors so people with disabilities can lead, advise and decide. As these ladies led community interviews exploring disability inclusion, their lived experience immediately brought new and nuanced discussion and gained insights I would have missed as an outsider.”

For Ruth, Lent invites us to look again at Jesus and the humble way he chose to walk.

“Though people expected a powerful king, someone who would fight to the top and assert control. He turned from the lure of prestige, took up the basin and towel, and accepted a path marked by misunderstanding and rejection. He sought out people marginalised by their society, teaching his followers that his restoring mission includes overturning exclusion and injustice, and giving greatest honour to parts of the body with low status.

As a follower of Jesus, I’m challenged to see and use my privilege, not only to speak up ourselves for those who are excluded, but to give space so that they may be part of the decisions, their experience valued and granted power.”

We invite you to share in prayer so we may all walk gently, share space, and notice Christ in the voices long unheard.

Lord Jesus, Servant-King,
teach us to refuse prestige and to choose the path of love.
Open our eyes to your presence among those the world overlooks.
Help us steward our privilege to honour, amplify, and follow the voices
of people with disabilities.
Make our leadership like yours – gentle, just, and humble. Amen.

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