I’ve written before about this surreal phenomenon that occurs to me when a particular topic seems to pop up in several unrelated contexts in a short period of time. I’ve come to believe it might be one way God tries to gently (and at times not so gently) focus my attention in a certain direction.
Recently I seem to encounter the notion of “trust” everywhere I turn. It happened again this weekend when our pastor talked about a story in Mark 8:22-26. It’s kind of an odd story in which Jesus restores sight to a blind man, but He takes two tries to get it right.
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. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
There’s a lot to the story, but I zeroed in on two questions about trust:
Will you be honest?
If you’ve been blind, it’d be tempting to say, “Good enough! ‘People looking like trees’ is better than nothing. Thanks, Jesus.”
But God doesn’t want us to settle for “just okay.” He sent Jesus so we could have abundant lives, not simply “good enough” lives.
Maybe the blind man’s healing happened in stages to he’d have the opportunity to grow in trust and vulnerability.
Will I trust Him enough to be thankful for progress while being honest about my needs, my shortfalls, the places I still need to grow?
Will you accept a new path?
When Jesus sent the man home, he told him to use a new path. Apparently Bethsaida was a town of no faith, and Jesus knew the man needed a fresh start and a different route. He essentially told the man not to return to his old ways.
I know that temptation. Even when I know the old path hurts me and those I love, it’s still familiar and easy. In times of stress, old habits, regrets, anxieties, and long-ago-confessed mistakes seem like the easy places to turn. They’re not, of course, but knowing that requires a long-term perspective.
And a long-term perspective requires trust in something bigger than right now.
Will I trust Jesus to guide me away from old ways and onto a new, unfamiliar, uncomfortable path when I can’t see where it leads?
Do you struggle with trusting Jesus with these two issues…or any others? What makes trust so difficult?
Please leave a comment here.
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