One of my favorite stories in the Bible is when Christ heals the blind man by the pool.
“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but the works of God should be made manifest in him…
When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam… He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing”
(John 9: 1-3, 6&7).
I hope we can all take the time to recognize the symbolism this story has within the journey of self-mastery.
Do you recognize the message for yourself?
Here is a man who from birth is blind and the Lord heals him in the most interesting of ways.
Why would Christ heal him in the way that He did? Could he not have just snapped his fingers?
Can you imagine the blind man’s thought process? “20-20 vision here we come!… ”
Christ then proceeds to anoint his eyes with clay and then tells him to go. Simply put: he expected the man to walk forward (already blind) with dirt in his eyes to a place where he can finally wash and come away seeing.
Is this not expected of us today?
Are we not expected to more or less walk forward with dirt in our eyes, not knowing the way, until we can finally come away seeing?
But how often do we look at the way in which God tries to heal us and say: “you know… I’m not really sure about your healing method?”
How often do we push away the remedy saying, “I don’t really want to do this therapy thing… because that means I’ll have to stumble forward with dirt in my eyes.”
Or, “What will everyone think of me when they realize ‘I can’t see’, let alone walk in a straight line?… They may think of me as a sinner, or blame it on my parents’ ‘bad parenting’”
Yet, I promise you throughout this entire process the Lord sees you.
He watches your struggle, but he knows the remedy.
He doesn’t want you to just go away seeing… He wants you to go away changed.
Christ doesn’t want to simply heal your symptoms… He wants to heal your very nature.
I don’t think there will be a question as to who was with us throughout the entire process, even if the dirt was stinging your eyes, and you were unable to see Him on your way.
Trust the process.
Go to therapy.
Be accountable.
Let the Lord work with you, in you, and through you, and you will come away seeing. You will come away changed.
Written by Brandon Nite, MSW graduate, Northwest Nazarene University. You can reach Brandon at bnitetherapy@gmail.com.
