Rosemary Mahoney spent time at a school for the blind in Tibet. She discovered that three general things happen to the blind across the globe. First, they are deemed stupid by the culture around them. Second, they are considered cursed by God. Third, in different ways, they are made to feel like a burden on society. In her research on persons who were born or became blind, she notes that while there may be an initial despair for what has happened, they move forward to learn how to live in the world. They don’t romanticize it – it is hard – yet they are not undone by it either. In village after village, blind kids were treated like animals because it was assumed that they were dumb and unsafe to be left alone; they felt cursed, and they felt the weight of shame put on them by the culture around them.
I wonder what motivated Bart more – the regain his sight for sight’s sake, or to regain his sight so that he no longer had to live under the burden of the voices all around him? Surely, he was exhausted and beaten down by the constant barrage of words, tone, and behavioral response from the many around him. Living in the world was tough enough for Bart. Not having a choice regarding how he was treated by those around him was salt in his wound. Perhaps his yearning to be free was a heart-cry stemming from his despair – not from being blind, but from the assault of the many around him.
In literal blindness, when sight is lost, the brain begins to forget how to see. So much so that, if a significant amount of time has passed, the brain has to relearn how to see, which takes a long time – a couple of years! I wonder how long it takes for us to see our true selves after a long time of being formed to see ourselves by others’ definitions. How have we, like Bart, been labeled? How have we embraced, adopted, and believed that the labels we have been given are true?
Labels related to age, height, weight, shape, education, economic status, employment, “looks”, mental health, physical health, sexuality, sexual identity, gender, skin tone, religiosity, ethnicity, criminality, immigration, political persuasion... how many labels are there? Labels limit, even labels that we choose to identify with, because when we choose to wrap our persona around a particular label, we make it difficult to live outside of the label. Can Giants’ fans cheer for the A’s? Can Niners root for the Raiders? Can country music fans like Coldplay? Can a fan of high-end clothing or cars also don Old Navy and be content in a clunker? The answer is yes, of course, yet voices around us will sometimes make it challenging.
Most of the time we don’t change much unless there is a truly compelling reason to do so. Usually, our discontent has to be high enough to make it worth it. We are not very proactive when it comes to major life change. Change is hard enough in isolation. Add the force of labels that we have chosen (as well as those that are placed on us) and a sort of prison emerges. Getting out of that prison takes enormous energy. Staying out does, too, because we will very naturally revert to the way things were. Sometimes the promise of freedom seems elusive, only coming around now and them.
Bart’s level of pain was finally great enough, and the promise of freedom present enough in Jesus that he decided to act. Last week I pointed out the urgency of his request, which can perhaps come off a little bit audacious, apparently demanding immediate attention from Jesus. It was, which is why the crowd hushed him. I wonder, however, if the urgency was for Bart as much as for Jesus, as if Bart was yelling out, “I can’t take it anymore! I am ready to be free of life as it is right now. I want to see; I want my blinders off! Now!”
The Good News Jesus proclaimed is all about that, and the invitation to a different way of life is central to experiencing the Good News. For many people, the moment of crying for help and hearing that there is acceptance, forgiveness in some cases, and a new way is so powerful that it results in a feeling of being born again. I have had this experience more than once. It is euphoric. Joy overflows. Life is filled once again with promise. Hope is restored. The initial moment is just the beginning, however. It is important, but it really is the first step on the trail.
Bart surely had such a moment, and then he saw another decision before him. If he had hopes of a truly new life, he could see that it required learning a lot of new ways of being and doing in the world. He recognized that he needed support – he was not going to be able to move forward in isolation. Did others help him realize this? Probably. We don’t know all that took place in those moments following the lifting of his blindness, but what we do know is that he chose to follow Jesus forward. He realized that the Way of faith is different than the way he had previously travelled, and so he chose to follow the one who knew the way, with the support of others.
The journey of faith is incapsulated in Bart’s story. At different points in our lives, we come to see that we are ready for change, ready for something new. Faith is not a one-and-done thing – it is a journey of discovery where we learn a new Way of living. The invitation always comes from love, is always for our growing into the depths of love and is marked by love (sometimes tough love). Most of the time we don’t even know where our blind spots are until we cannot ignore them anymore. Sometimes we realize that we are in the doldrums and want to get out of them. Sometimes our lives blow up. Sometimes we get an epiphany of something new and different that we can’t look away from. They all come to a point where we see the reality of our lives, the invitation to learn the unforced rhythms of grace, and decide to call out. Bishop Michael Curry sums it well:
There is a Jewish proverb, “Before every person there marches an angel proclaiming, ‘Behold, the image of God.’” Unselfish, sacrificial living isn’t about ignoring or denying or destroying yourself. It’s about discovering your true self—the self that looks like God—and living life from that grounding. Many people are familiar with a part of Jesus’s summary of the law of Moses: You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. Yourself. Loving the self is a required balance. If we fail in that, we fail our neighbor, too. To love your neighbor is to relate to them as someone made in the image of the God. And it is to relate to yourself as someone made in the image of the God. It’s God, up, down, and all around, and God is love.
– Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times
Bart, what do you want God to do for you? Are you ready to make your desire known? Are you ready to add urgency to your request? Are you ready to follow Jesus’ Way that leads to life, supported by others? Maybe for you it’s the first time you’ve seen the hope before you, or maybe it’s the umpteenth time. The journey is filled with never-ending invitations to join the party on the Way. Today the invitation is before you, Bart. What’s your RSVP?