Blinded

"Look how You shine, so the blind can see."

- David Crowder*Band, “You’re Everything”

What if there was a light invented that whenever it was turned on, anyone who was blind could see everything that it illuminated? I would venture to say that every blind person who could possibly get their hands on one would own it. The feeling of being able to see when you have been blind - maybe even for your whole life - would have to be stunning. I can't even imagine that feeling.

I would bet that for people who are completely blind, even something short of this would be a rush. If a light was invented that simply let these people see light and nothing else, I have to believe that most every blind person would want one. When you have the ability to see nothing at all, light would have to be almost like a drug for you. An overwhelming sensation of something radiating in the middle of nothingness. The feeling of just turning it on and being able to see something.

As far as I know, a light like this is out of human reach at this point in history. That is not to say that technology will never get there, because some of the advances that are being made daily are astounding. But I can't help but think that this is what Jesus was talking about when he asked us to light the world - to be a city on a hilltop. We are that light that allows the blind to see.

I think we often downplay how lost you must feel (and truthfully, are) when your life is void of God. Personally, I like to imagine the people around me as simply dizzy. They just lost their way, and they can't find the right path back. But I don't think this is what God has been trying to portray to us. He wants us to realize that we are dealing with a world full of people with a very interesting sight condition. These are people who are completely blind, and many of them think that they can see perfectly.

Imagine if you had that condition in the physical world. Walking around completely lost, but thinking you knew where you were. How many times would you severely injure yourself? How many times would you fall off a curb, run into a stranger, or get hit by a car? This would be a serious condition! And this is how too many people are living. They are searching around thinking that they will find their way, and they have been injured so many times by the things that life has thrown at them. Things like depression, unfaithful marriages, unbelief, financial debts, abusive spouses, and lack of purpose. The problem is that they don't know why they got hurt, and they can't see well enough to find a hospital.

This is where the church comes in. The church being you and me – God’s literal house. We are to be a hospital for these sick and broken people. Our mission is to help these people heal, and once they are well, to send them back out into the world prepared. We have to illuminate the path for them - to give them vision using our incredible light. And then, we have to teach them to light the way for themselves. To use the light properly that has completely changed their view of life.

Do you want to know the best thing about this whole process to me? The best part is when someone who has been lost starts operating their own light. Not just because someone's life has been changed, but because I know many more lives will be. If I was blind and someone offered me a tool that provided sight, I wouldn't just live the rest of my life being able to see the world. I would find as many people as I could that had the same condition of blindness and explain to them how this light had changed my life.

We often want to know why the church in America isn't "growing" like it should. Here is your solution. Find blind people, offer them sight, and watch them do the same. Look past their confusion, and see someone who is bleeding to death - stumbling around trying to find a hospital where one doesn't exist. Lead them there at all costs.

I can't wait to see the world shine so brightly that our eyes have to adjust to this new abundance of light. Let's make it happen.

- Zane