It is tragic for anyone who is physically blind.  But there are many who have been able to compensate for their loss of sight in so many other ways.  Think about Helen Keller and her accomplishments.  Think about the contributions to music made by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.  But, as tragic as it is to be without sight, there is a greater tragedy when we live our lives without perception.  Let’s step back a moment and define perception.  Here is my definition of perception:  It’s The Ability, Skill And Gift Of Recognizing What Is Happening To Us, Around Us, And Within Us.  When I say it’s an ability I mean that God has given every one of us a way to recognize all that makes up our world.  When I say it is a skill I mean is that this given ability needs to be sharpened and refined through use.  And when I say it is a gift by that I mean that only God can bring all our ability and skill to the depth that we need in order to live life that way He wants us to live.

Admit it, we all have blind spots; more than the blind spots that are around our cars, we have emotional, psychological and spiritual blind spots where we fail to recognize what is happening around and even within us.  And in this Blue Print For A Brand New You, we need to have Eyes That Are Open.  Let’s look at the story of a man who needed his physical eyes opened and see if there’s something in this that can help us make sure the eyes of our heart are open.  It is found Mark 10:46-52 and I want to share it with you from The Message:

Now, try to put yourself in the shoes of this beggar named Bartimaeus.  Think about his world and his life.  What a way to be identified.  Ask a resident around Jericho, “Who is this fellow Bartimaeus?”  Anyone who knew would probably answer, “Oh, he’s just a blind beggar, that’s all.”  Nothing more, nothing less—a blind beggar.  What does it mean to be blind?  Normally, most people think about total darkness, and for sure, some who are blind live in a totally dark world.  But not all blindness is total darkness.  I was blessed with the friendship and teaching of a saint by the name of Dr. David Naglee.  For many years he wore glasses that looked almost like prisms.  Then he needed the help of a magnifying glass to read.  And finally he had to give up teaching anywhere but near his home at LaGrange College because with the strongest lenses and the strongest magnifying glass, his world turned blurry.

And so many today are living an unclear, out of focus life.  Day after day after day many are living in a blindness, a blindness that they don’t want to live in.  And for many, they have resigned to that kind of life.  Maybe that’s where Bartimaeus was.  Every day was the same for him.  He would go to a spot, sit there and beg for alms.  He never woke up with the excitement of anticipation, that something exciting would happen.  About all he could pray for was that generous people would pass his way.  And on that day, that ordinary, just another-day-of-begging, he went to that place.  He was hoping for enough to just barely get by.  But suddenly he senses a large crowd and there’s a lot of commotion and talking.  He can’t see what’s happening but he has that feeling that something big is happening.  And he just doesn’t know yet, how big a happening it will be.

He asks, “What’s going on?”  And someone tells him, “It’s Jesus, the traveling Rabbi from Nazareth.” then goes on.  Now Bartimaeus is blind, but he’s not deaf.  He’s heard people talking about Jesus and about all the miracles He had been doing.  And he found in his heart a small ember of hope.  He may have been thinking that if Jesus could heal others diseases, just maybe He could open his eyes.  But he has to act; no time for delaying or pondering.  So with the loudest voice he had, he began crying out, “Son of David, Jesus!  Mercy, have mercy on me!”  The people around him tried to hush him up, but he only got louder.  Now, I feel I need to ask you 3 crucial questions:

There are a lot things that can blind us to the real world around us.  Prejudice blinds us because we make up our minds before we know all the facts, and so it blinds us to the worth and value that God sees in people.  Oh, then there’s fear.  Man, can that ever blind us.  It gets us all knotted up inside to where we can’t think clearly.  It makes problems and especially potential problems more powerful than they really are.  Fear, uncontrolled fear, is what causes us to doubt God’s promises.  It gives us tunnel vision to where all we see are problems and not God’s presence.

Resentment and its twin Bitterness can blind us to the power of grace.  Resentment and bitterness are like kudzu; it grows wildly and covers every thing up in its path.  They are like corrosive acid, destroying everything it touches so that on the inside, we become hollow and empty people.  It takes away hope, joy and peace.  Feeling forgotten can blind us to the truth that God loves us.  This is how Bartimaeus may have felt.  He had been ignored, pushed aside to the point all that most people knew about him was that he was the blind beggar.  The feeling of being ignored, that no one cares can shut down the heart and spirit and blind us to the truth that God does love us.  When we feel unloved, unwanted by others, its easy to think that God doesn’t love or want us.

We don’t know if Bartimaeus was born blind or if some accident or disease claimed his eyesight.  The price of losing one’s sight is to miss, miss the experiences that happen every day.  And when we are spiritually blind, we pay the price, too.  We miss seeing the beauty that is always around us.  Yes, the changing of the seasons, the blooms of the flowers, but there’s more.  We can miss the beauty of a smile, the beauty of a child exploring their world.  When we are spiritually blind, there so much we miss.  We miss friendships that are waiting to be made by someone who has so much to give to a friend. 

We miss see love that is waiting to be experienced by another person.  So many hearts could be changed if they knew they were unconditionally loved.  But if we are blinded spiritually, we can’t see those people.  We can miss seeing the sigh of relief from a friend who needs simply our presence and nothing more.  It not only costs us, but the price is extracted from others who miss out on the ministry that only you can give.  The biggest price of our self-imposed blindness is that we are no longer useful.  The human heart and spirit knows it was made to be useful, and to feel useless is crushing.  Maybe that is where Bartimaeus was, he felt useless because he had nothing to contribute to others.  NOT seeing costs us the opportunities to become the presence of Jesus through the use of our hands, our words, our actions and our hearts.  It stripes us of the very purpose we were created for.  But there’s one more question that begs to be asked, and an answer maybe someone here to day needs:

Let’s get back to Bartimaeus.  He’s by that dusty road begging when he hears that Jesus is there.  His heart knows what needs to be said—what must be said.  All his life he had been treated as second class, but he cries out anyway.  People try to silence him because, after all, what could Jesus possibly want with a poor, dirty, blind beggar?  Would Jesus really have anything to do with someone who is a poor, blind beggar?  You better believe He would.  And so Jesus tells those trying to keep Bartimaeus silent, keep him away from Jesus, “Hey!  Stop treating him that way.  I want to see Him.”    And so they bring this blind beggar to Jesus.  Why does Jesus want him there, near Him?

To ask the only question that God has for those who are poor, blind, and broken inside.  “What can I do for you?”  No beating around the bush for Jesus.  No long theological discussions or committee meetings.  Now Bartimaeus has a decision to make.  Should he dare make the bold request?  Does he fear that Jesus would deny his request?  I see no hesitation from Bartimaeus when he says:  “Rabbi, I want to see.” 

And in this very moment, right now in this place, listen—listen because Jesus has never stopped asking that question, “What can I do for you?”  And if right now you feel just like a poor, blind beggar, that your life is out of focus and blurred, that darkness, a darkness no one knows but you and Jesus, has blinded your eyes to a future filled with promise, hope and a real purpose, He is asking you, “What can I do for you?”  Will you trust Him enough to repeat those same words to Jesus?  Lord, Savior, Master—I want to see!  And what will Jesus do?  The same thing he did for Bartimaeus:  “Your faith has saved and healed you.”  Make your request, and then do what it says that Bartimaeus did:  In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road.  And that, my friends is how to have eyes that are open—to follow Jesus down the road.