Have you ever participated in a trust fall activity? You know, the game-like situation where you stand with your back to a friend and when given the command to fall, you are to blindly fall back into the arms of the person behind you. It is appropriately called a trust fall because as you fall backwards the natural instinct is to try to catch yourself or bend your knees to lessen your fall. If done correctly, you stay as straight as an arrow and you fall backwards way beyond the point where you believe someone is going to catch you. To do the trust fall properly, you have to have a certain degree of courage and trust. As I have participated in this activity over the years, mainly with youth groups, it feels like one of the hardest challenges is to have the courage to trust that someone is going to catch you when you fall. To have that trust, you have to have faith in the person behind you. In this particular activity, you may know the person well, or you might be partnered with someone that you may know a little or possibly someone you just met. It would be safe to say that the more familiar you are with someone, the more that trust factor goes up. Regardless of how familiar you are with the person behind you it takes a certain amount of "blind faith" to fall back into the arms of a person, trusting he or she will catch you. Today, we will be looking at the life of a blind man who placed his trust in Jesus. I think it would be safe to say that the blind man "fell into the arms of Jesus".
In the Gospel of John chapter 9, we are relayed a story of a man who had been blind since birth whom Jesus performed a miracle on, and gave the man sight. After healing the man's blindness, Jesus left the man to share his good news. Jesus came under immediate scrutiny from a group of nearby Pharisees for healing a man on the Sabbath. The men questioned the formerly blind man about who healed him and under what authority did the man perform this miracle. The blind man answered once that he really didn't know who the man was. Then the doubters had the man's parents brought to them and they questioned them about their son's blindness and this miraculous healing. They couldn't tell the Pharisees anything either, they were just shocked and amazed that their son who had been blind since birth now had sight. So finally, the group of Pharisees asked the man one more time about who it was that healed him. The formerly blind man's response here is golden. In John 9:25 the man replied to those questioning him, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind, but now I see!" Blind faith.
"I don't know who restored my sight, I don't know anything about him, but I know one thing. I was blind and now I see!" What a statement of faith. I couldn't see him, but he saw me and he healed me, which is pretty much how I interpret the man's stance. In a way, it mirrors the whole idea of a trust fall. I don't know who was behind me, but I fell into their arms and they caught me. I trusted and believed and the person behind me kept me from hitting the ground and being hurt. That "blind faith" mentality is where trust turns into faith and faith creates hope. That hope in turn creates a deeper trust and that is where we fall into the arms of Jesus. Our own blind faith experience of falling into the arms of the One that is there to catch us regardless of what life throws our way.
Is there an area of your life that needs some "blind faith"? Are you facing challenges in your life that are creating doubt and fear and that fear is holding you back or holding you down? It may be time to do a check on who or what you are placing your faith in or where you are placing your trust. In the "trust fall" exercise we place our trust in a person, but that trust is grounded in our faith that God is in control and God will always be there to catch us when we fall. Just as the formerly blind man stated, "One thing I do know, I was blind and now I see. Drop the mic. I want that same blind faith, that same trust that firmly believes God is in control and He will always be there to catch me when I fall.
"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" Hebrews 11:1
Coach Carter
No comments:
Post a Comment