The Bible says that as Jesus walked along, he saw a man who was born blind. And his disciples, who were hungry for information, asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Whenever we have adversity in our lives, we have a tendency in our own human reasonings to always want to understand WHY this happened. Who do I blame for this? “I’m like this, because my parents are like this. I’m like this because I’m short. I’m like this because I’m tall.” You can always look for some reason to explain the setbacks of life. Jesus blows all of this out of the water and says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” In other words, he did nothing to bring this on himself.
I really want that to sink in, because somebody reading this today is blaming themselves for something that you have no responsibility for, and God says it was nothing that you did that brought this on you. This just happened. Bad things happen to good people. So rather than to spend our energy trying to figure out who to blame for this condition, we ought to be preparing ourselves because God is about to pass our way.
Look at this. Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” This is a profound statement. Jesus is suggesting here that the works of God are displayed through the adversities of men. In other words, if you didn’t go through anything that was adverse, God would not have had a way to show how strong He is in your life. Are you following me? When we are at our worst, God is at His best. And just because you are in a crisis mode right now does not mean that you are going to spend your entire life in it.
Here is probably the most relevant part of the story for most of us: Jesus sent this man somewhere else to complete his miracle. Jesus could have completed the process right in front of the blind man, but just like for us today, Jesus asked this man to make a decision—a decision to walk quite a distance in the dark. To walk through the crowds who stared at the mud on his face, to walk past those who laughed at him, beyond those who felt confused by what they could see on his face. But Jesus told him to go on a journey. And he asks us to do the same, because he knows that we are only one decision away from our best life—a decision to stop playing the blame game, and a decision to walk from our darkness into His light.
Wishing you faith for today,
Roy
