So, who do you identify with?
1.The disciples - do you suspect you might be asking the wrong questions? Getting caught up in your head and missing the point? Are you looking to place blame? Instead, ask questions that have to do with loving people. Ask God what He is doing rather than pushing a theological agenda.
2. The neighbours - stuck in your own paradigm so you can’t see anything else? Paradigms aren’t necessarily bad, just limited. That’s why we need to be aware of them. What are your unquestioned presuppositions? Where are you missing God because what you are seeing or experiencing doesn’t fit your God box? Ask God to help you step outside your paradigm. Ask him to show you how He is outside your way of thinking - He’s so much bigger, grander than our minds can comprehend.
3. The Pharisees - caught up in preserving the system and your place in it. It’s essentially putting our trust in a system or a person to give us a sense of security or significance rather than God. This is much easier to slip into than it sounds because it feels right. It can feel like defending our faith however, we are actually covering our fear. It takes great courage to ask God what am I protecting and what am I afraid to lose? Then, it takes trust releasing to God those fears and the need to control.
4. The parents -you know the truth but are afraid of losing friends, a place in the community you have come to love. It’s often easier to belong to a group than to God. Where are you going along with the group but you know better. What does standing for the truth look like? What is God inviting you to? This may involve loss but freedom comes from living in the truth - not being afraid of what others think. It’s often in these places where we feel like we’re the only one we discover we are never alone and we become acquainted to a deeper level of God’s presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
5. Or maybe you resonate with the man. You know the work God has done in your life but you are still on your way to calling him your Lord. Or maybe you’ve just recently had your eyes opened and started following Jesus. I encourage you to remember that moment, the moment you encountered Jesus and something shifted in your soul. You need to practice remembering because it is too easy to forget. Also, God has so much more he wants to show you about himself. Give him permission to continue the work of healing he has begun.
Are you ready to get in touch with your blindness? If this causes tension in you, talk to God about it and invite a trusted friend into your journey. May all of us, no matter where we are at, cry out to Jesus, who is powerful, loving and good, “Teacher, I want to see.”