At the beginning of the sermon Sunday, Pastor Mark showed the death crawl clip from Facing the Giants. He was preaching from Hebrews 12, and the focus of the sermon was perseverance. He had some powerful things to say – truths that we all need to grasp and incorporate into our faith walk. But there was one thing he said that was, for me, like a punch in the solar plexus. I’m not sure it had the same impact on others as it did on me, but I have carried it with me since Sunday.
It was actually a question and very possibly a question that wouldn’t have made you dwell on it too long. But for me, it hit right where I’m living. He asked, “How far would you go if you were blindfolded?” I don’t typically answer rhetorical questions when taking notes on a sermon, but at the end of that question, I wrote, “I AM blindfolded.” I have been blindfolded since May of 2018 when I lost my teaching job of 25 years for praying with my students. If I think closely about it, I think that I have been blindfolded since December of 2017 when I was first suspended on those charges. I have been blindfolded and desperate to take off the blindfold to see where I’m going – if I’ve made ANY progress over the last 18 months.
To be honest, I’ve often felt that we have been crawling around in circles. I know I keep coming back to the same issues. To find another job or not. How can we lower our regular monthly bills? How serious is Bill’s pulmonary fibrosis? What about ministry? Back to the prison or does God have something else in mind? Should we sell the house? And on and on and on.
And yes, like the kid in the video, I’m tired. I often feel like I can’t take another step. Actually, I’m not sure there is value in taking another step if I’m just walking in circles. In light of eternity, I’m not sure I have made a difference in even one person’s life over this time. So, it begs the question, “Why would God want me blindfolded?” If we use the kid in the video, he would have stopped at the twenty-yard line. What about me? Where would I have stopped?
It might interest you to know that I had no idea what the answer to that question was until I finished typing it. Of course, I can’t know for sure, but I’m afraid that I might have stopped back in April – before I lost my job – or even in December when the threat of it was on the table. If I had known how useless it all seems 18 months later, would I still have stood for Jesus? I think so. I hope so.
But how exactly do you keep going when you’re tired and hurting and blindfolded? That question took me back to the key passage – Hebrews 12.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross… Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Consider Him! Ah! It always comes back to Him, doesn’t it? And in that truth lies the answer to the question of blindfolding. I see a mental image of horses wearing blinders. The purpose of blinders is to keep them looking straight ahead rather than being distracted by everything around them. Isn’t that the same purpose God has when He blindfolds us? Wearing blindfolds, all we can see is the One to Whom darkness is as light – the light of the world. And why is it so important that we fix our eyes on Him? We find the answer in the last part of verse 3 – “so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” The implication in those verses is that if we have grown weary and lost heart, we have not had our eyes fixed on Jesus.
We make it so easy on the enemy, don’t we? He doesn’t even have to think of something new. He uses the same old tricks and we keep falling for them. But that’s where perseverance comes in. When the devil pulls us down, we fix our eyes on Jesus, dust ourselves off and take the next step – blindfolded and beholding His face.
And if we persevere, the day will come when we can be a light in someone else’s darkness. God instructs us about that in verses 12 and 13. “Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”
So, once more I choose to place my eyes squarely where they belong so that I won’t continue to be weary and heavyhearted. If you are struggling in the dark right now and are old enough to remember it, sing this chorus with me. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
PS I can’t resist telling you this. Bill came home Wednesday as I was nearing the end of this. I left it and went downstairs. To my surprise, he pulled me into his arms and said “pray with me.” Since he usually is asking me to pray for him, I was surprised when he began to pray. I was even more surprised when he said, “God, it feels like we’ve been walking around in the darkness. Please give us some light so we can have an idea where we’re going.” I could do nothing but smile and say, “Oh my Jesus, we are so human.”
Judah Means Praise 