Blind Faith

"They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”  Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly." [Mark 8:22-25]

This passage has been resonating with me lately. It is full of questions: Why did Jesus take the blind man outside of the village for the healing? Why did Jesus spit on the man's eyes when He could have just touched him, spoke the healing into being, or put mud on the man's eyes with instructions for a bath after? He had done all those types of healings before...why the spitting? Why did Jesus have to touch the man twice for him to regain his sight?

It is a difficult thing to discern God's will for our lives, when our lives themselves are full of questions. Why do loved ones have to die? Why does healing sometimes come via death? Why do companies have lay-offs at the most inopportune of times? What will happen to this person, that person, this child, that child? Why?

My family and I are going through a very difficult time right now...dealing with a loved one's illness, managing daily life with a husband who is now at home because he lost his job, an impending two-week long mission trip, concerns and heavy hearts regarding the trials that close friends are facing. It is very difficult to discern God's will in all these things.

Yet (and I love how Jesus uses the word "yet" to mean Glory and Victory instead of defeat)... yet...."He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village..." Why outside the village? Going through the trials that my family and I are facing, I understand what this means....sometimes we are thrust headlong into a situation that we otherwise would not choose. My husband did not choose to be let go...yet...here we are, in the throes of a job search that we did not choose to be in, yet here we are. Outside the village. I did not choose to have back surgery twice in seven years, but it was necessitated by herniated disks...outside the village. How many times do we have to go through a fire for which we did not put flame to kindle?

Yet...God can always use these "outside the village" moments when we trust Him. Often times we will not trust or obey unless forced...like Jonah who found himself in the whale after turning tail and running away from God, only to be puked up on the beach like a bad piece of krill. Jonah obeyed then. Outside the village...

So Jesus has the blind man outside the village and spits on his eyes not once but twice....Let's look at the first vision recovery...after Jesus spits and rubs and asks the man if he sees anything, the man looks around and says, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." You almost see Jesus' grin when the blind man says that.

We are so tempted, when Jesus is working on our lives, to stop Him halfway, aren't we? We get to the point that this man came to....not blind...with definitely better vision...but not completely where Jesus wanted him. So many times we stop Jesus short of where He wants us, saying, "Oh I'm better now!" and we jump up from the dirt on the ground and run around, saying "Jesus healed me!" But He wasn't finished.

It wasn't that Jesus had to spit and rub twice to get this man's vision back...He had performed countless Making-the-Blind-See miracles before this. Jesus was wanting to see if the man was willing to have the faith and patience to sit there for a minute longer for Jesus to give him complete restoration.

This brings to another point: the man had faith that Jesus was still there while He was working. So many times we go through trials and we think, "Oh Jesus is working here," only to doubt when things get fuzzy and we can't see clearly. Jesus is still working, whether we see Him or not. We may see trials and tribulations as big fuzzy trees, overpowering us and walking around -- it is at these times we sit back, be patient, and wait for Jesus to complete the work.

Blind faith...blind faith is a call for trusting God when we see Him working and when we don't, knowing full well that the blind man did not see Jesus but he most assuredly heard Him spitting and felt His precious fingers touching his eyes. We as followers of Christ need to recognize that we may not actively see Him working in our lives but He is nonetheless.

Peace.

Terrie

(c) 2013 Terrie McKee

 

 

Ashes to Beauty

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah.  The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.” [Jeremiah 31:38-40]

When we're in the midst of a tragedy, or overwhelmed by everyday life, or dealing with chronic pain that won't cut us a moment's slack, there is a tendency to not see beyond that moment. I've had weeks where it all seemed piled on: problems with the kids, communication issues with the husband, schedule conflicts that added to all this, and then something (usually little) caused a volcano effect where Mommy blew her top, tears cascaded down like lava, and she needed a time-out. We wait for the One Last Thing to happen, or for the other shoe to drop. When in the middle of such a week, I often wonder, when will it end?

 

In life, there are times when those weeks will ooze out into months, and seasons. We call out to God and wonder what lessons, what joy is to be had? From parents dealing with little ones' major health issues, to mothers who are so very sick themselves trying to take care of their children, to fathers who are working to keep a roof overhead and food on the table -- it can all just seem so daunting. In my house, it seems like the closer I work, through study, prayer and service, to learn more about my Savior Jesus, the more Satan throws curveballs. My son with autism will have a meltdown at school or do something to get suspended. My three-year-old daughter will get a cluster migraine -- a disorder that has been newly diagnosed. Since I will be out of the country for two weeks in October on a mission trip, I have been praying with intensity for a hedge of protection against Satan's curveballs.

 

Once upon a time, I had a season where I wondered how in the world could good come out of the circumstances that overwhelmed me and my family. My beloved church went through a period of change: retired founding pastor, new interim pastor with new ideas, new order of worship, new seating arrangements, new and disturbing thoughts about Jesus, theology and Biblical teaching. My husband and I, usually quiet in the ways of church politics, found ourselves moved by the Spirit to do as John told us: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world," [1 John 4:1]. The backlash to this questioning was heart-rending; people we thought were our friends turned, and we found ourselves deep in prayer, discerning what God would have us to do.

 

God led us to leave the church that we had been married in, had all our kids baptized in as babies or young children. God led us to leave the church that we had taught in, served in, and worshipped in. We thought we would never recover from what we perceived as betrayal.

 

During this entire season, my husband and I found ourselves engrossed in God's Word, learning what God says about events such as this. God used this time to build our faith like no time before. Jeremiah wrote, "The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.” God used this overwhelming time in our lives, filled with dead memories and the ashes of hopes and dreams, to become a most holy time -- a time in which we ministered to the homeless and looked around for a church home; a time in which we looked to God for direction and leadership instead of fallible humans.

 

Then, not by happenstance, but by Godstance, we found ourselves at a new-to-us church, that preached Jesus and Him alone. God took the ashes of the last year and made beauty out of it, and we discovered that you truly don't know what you've been missing until you know what you were missing. That time became holy to the Lord....and I rejoice and praise my Loving, Leading Lord Jesus that the time spent with Him will never be uprooted or demolished.

 

In His Name,

Terrie

 

(c) 2013 Terrie McKee