It has been far over a month now back in the beloved Ville and I’m quickly caught up in the ever hectic college routine of classes, coffee dates, homework, game nights, more homework, volunteering and all the busyness in between. I love it- being busy seems to fuel me. This fall semester I’m once again realizing that college life is Jessica Wright’s environment to thrive- lots of people, things to do, new experiences, learning and opportunity for fun at every hour (all 24 of them honestly- no time wasted- super efficient- yea talk about my five loves.) In the craziness, the Lord’s presence has floored me- teaching me so much, rocking my world and leaving me in awe daily. I am oh so thankful for this sweet season. But here’s the big BUT. BUT the more the Lord leads me into understanding his glorious characteristics, the more I become aware of the sinful nature in myself and on this earth. And in this learning I have come to this diagnosis: I am blind. Oh so blind. I am blind to to the spiritual realm at work. I am blind to eternal matters. Blind to others’ suffering. Blind to my own faults. I am short-sighted, have blurred vision, and suck at depth perception. Without Christ at my center, I am flailing around aimlessly on what can seem like a pretty dark journey. Reading in Psalms 40, I couldn’t relate more to David’s cry: “For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot SEE. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me.” Boy oh boy. I cannot see. Come quickly. Lord help me. But that’s not where it ends. That’s where the Light of the world, the Healer to the blind, and the Perfector of our faith steps in. That’s the part where I was saved by grace through faith. That’s the part where Christ comes crashing, oh so beautifully, into the picture. David proclaiming at the end of this Psalms: “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!” Ultimately, The Lord saves from blindness. Jesus has a pretty solid track record with blind people. Countless times in the New Testament we see where he miraculously and ever so lovingly healed the blind; opening their eyes and giving them sight. Not leaving them stuck in their disease, but instead claiming life over them, healing them, and having them walk into the hope he brings. Mark 10:46-52 depicts a perfect example of this. The blind man cries out to Jesus multiple times, even after being rebuked by Mary and other disciples. Because after all, who so lowly as a helpless blind man dare try and get the attention of Jesus? Right? Hardly. Jesus hears him. HUGE. Then Jesus asks him what the man desired. HUGE again. The man responded, asking for sight to be restored. And then the line that knocks me over every time, “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” Friends, can we even begin to comprehend how this is a presentation of the gospel, pre “the gospel”? The man knew he was blind. It was binding and had enslaved him. His life was consumed by his blindness. But he cried out to the Healer. And the Healer responded and healed. And then DIDN’T LEAVE HIM THERE, BUT RATHER WALKED BESIDE HIM. And it was all bound by faith. Wow, wow, wow. And that is just it. I’m blind and I daily need healing. Daily needing to understand the gospel. I need these blind eyes opened, and the invitation to walk into faith with my savior. Because ya’ll the lenses I so often choose to look through are ones that cause blindness rather than aid or fix it. They are lenses that show me just a snipett of understanding rather than the God view of time. Lenses that are distracting and not clear, often dirty and tainted instead. The lenses with which I look through without choosing Christ are such earthly, short lived ones. But, with Christ, and when I am seeking him,asking him, and having faith in him is when things change. Is when I hear him say, “Hey Jessica, I am listening. I hear your blind cries in need of healing. I desire to open them”. And he begins to pull back the sin filled lenses of through which I look, and begins replacing them with his eternal ones. Taking the earthly (what I have to give=sin) and turning it eternal(what he has to give=grace) as only he can. New lenses that aren’t fixed on the circumstantial, but rather on the glory of our Maker. The lenses that seek him, direct me upwards and are cleansed through the work of the cross. My prayer is that in this season, and in all those ahead, that my blindness wouldn’t consume me. In the stuff, be it school, or friends, or relationships, or jobs etc. that I would be reminded of my blindness. And that it would bring me to my knees, in complete praise that I am healed and that my eyes continue to be opened; that I was “blind but now I see”. Because surely that is my only response to the absolute beauty of the fact that the Creator of the world loves me enough to reveal eternal things to these blind eyes.
0 Comments
|
AuthorI LOVE JESUS, GRACE, PEOPLE, PUNS, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE AND THE FLORIDA GATAS Archives
October 2016
Categories |