Faith Venture

So, the guy is just minding his own business. Just like any other day in his life.

Then a group of guys stop and talk about him just as if he weren’t there.

“Why was this guy born without sight? Did he sin in the womb? Or, did his parents sin?”

What, he thinks to himself. Do you think I can’t hear as well as can’t see?

Then someone with an authoritative voice rubs mud on my eyes and tells me to go to a special place to wash my eyes.

So, what the heck? I go to the pool and wash my eyes.

And I CAN SEE!

Wow! What colors. And that’s what those people look like.

Then some people grab me and take me to a room where the religious leaders were gathered in judgement. That’s what they do. Judge. Separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak.

And they ask, what happened that you can see? And I tell the simple little story. And they don’t believe, so they call the parents and drag them into the room. He’s our son, they say, and he was born without sight. But other than that, we don’t know anything. Kind of like Sgt. Shultz from Hogan’s Heroes TV series, “I know nothing! Nothing!”

They ask more questions. I’m getting perturbed, and starting to feel stronger.  I have nothing to lose. As a deformed person, I don’t have status in the synagogue anyway. I challenge the big guys. They don’t like that, of course.

Then Jesus, the guy who healed me, finds me and asks if I believe in the Son of Man. I’ve heard of the Son of Man. He’s predicted in the Scriptures and the Essenes have been saying he’ll come soon. So I say yes, but who is this Son of Man? I am, says Jesus.

Then I believe in you. Anyone who can heal like that must be from God.

As John describes in his Gospel in Chapter 9, this man went from the life of a beggar to a disciple one day when the extraordinary happened. John took us from a story of physical sight restored to spiritual sight restored.

But the dreams I’ve seen lately keep on turning out

And burning out and turning out the same.

So put me on a highway and show me a sign

And take it to the limit one more time.

–The Eagles

I’m not sure what the Eagles meant by the song. But how many of us try to take it to the limit?
There was once a soccer team who asked me to tell them how far they could go before it was a foul. Takin’ it to the limit. They obviously had no clue about the sport.

How many kids push their parents to the limit? How many of us as kids did it?

We have politicians all over the world these days taking it to the limit. Some go over.

Pushing against limits is good when we’re growing. I remember telling my daughter (many times) that my job was to set limits, her job as an adolescent was to push against them to find out how far was too far and yet grow by testing.

I had a professor in university who (I think) respected me because I’d push the limit, but never beyond.

We grow physically by pushing against the limit. Too far–injury. Hit limit, rest, hit limit, rest–you’ll grow and strengthen muscles.

I started thinking this thread that pushing the limit is a bad thing. But sometimes it’s a good thing.

Knowing the difference is wisdom.

Ever see someone you know who is well known in the area as a Christian who behaves in a disgraceful manner?

I heard this phrase, Christians behaving badly, from a speaker quite some time ago. It’s stuck with me, or on me. It’s a play on words from a TV show. It fits so many people.

These days, your picture could be forwarded around Facebook, Instagram, or even a news site while you are behaving in a manner that would draw a sharp rebuke from the one you are supposedly following?

There is a picture drawn for us in the letter to the Hebrews that begins, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses…”

Does that thought, the thought that someone is always watching you, make you uncomfortable? It does me.

I’m introverted by nature (slightly anyway), and there are times when it seems that I can recall every embarrassing thing I’ve ever done. Maybe others are not so afflicted. 

There is a reason that I seldom refer to myself as Christian. I prefer follower of Jesus or “Christ-follower.” It shows I’m trying. But it is also perhaps an inner way of dissociating myself from people I read about in the news or hear discussing things that just make me cringe.

What kind of witness to Jesus is that, I ask myself. Is that really going to bring someone into relationship?

I hope my picture never hits that “behaving badly” circuit, even though I know that I am capable of it. But I’d hope that I’d always overcome the urge and behave appropriately.

Remember when TV first came along? Some of you do. “They” said that now there was a communications medium where everyone could have access to news and programs that would uplift the mind, educate them.

But soon there was a race to the bottom of reaching for cheap laughs and playing on emotions as TV networks sought ever larger audiences striving for larger amounts of sales and profits from advertisers hoping to reach those people.

So today we have networks devoted to stirring up emotions so that they’ll attract a loyal audience ever seeking for more emotional fire–and by the way see the ads that are presented to them.

Remember the Internet? And now even greater masses of people could get the information they needed to live a better life. Things like the Khan Academy where you can go to learn math and other subjects.

But then came advertising. And Facebook devoted to stirring up emotions to keep people online and, oh by the way, see the ads. And lo, Facebook and its founders became very wealthy.

And there were preachers using these new media. And did they teach and invite people to be disciples? Or did they preach to the lowest emotions to attract and keep people watching, and oh by the way, keep those donations coming….

And the people agreed and allowed themselves to be captured.

But 2,000 years ago Paul told us that we are like children who are on milk but that we need to grow to where we can eat meat (this is a spiritual reference, not a physical one). He told us about avoiding falling into our passions and instead focus on God. He told us to turn from darkness into light.