Take Courage! Part 4

And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the man who was blind, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.” Mark 10:49 NASB

So often in scripture we are exhorted to take courage, to be bold and strong - mainly from the Lord Himself. In today’s scripture, we read of a crowd telling blind Bartimaeus to ‘take courage’ for Jesus was calling for him.

These people, whether they knew Bartimaeus or not, encouraged him to stand up and go to Jesus. We all need people around us who will have the same attitude towards those suffering. We need people who will come alongside us and instil in us a sense of hope.

It all started when Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was coming and he cried out ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me’.

The same is true for all of us when we suffer. We can and should cry out to God for help. In doing so, others should gather around to support and point us to the One who alone has the answer to our needs.

Metaphorically speaking, we too can have blindness when we are plunged into a desperate situation. Where do we go for help? Which way do I turn? I know God is near (as Jesus was with Bartimaeus) but I can’t find Him or experience His touch and presence.

For some people they can become so blinded by their circumstances particularly if they are a in shock such as tragedy, traumatic, sudden illness etc, that they never find God again. This is so so sad and should never be. It is understandable that these sufferings can damage our faith and cause us to become blind spiritually. Or to put it another way, our hearts can become hardened. People become hard and bitter toward God. These are difficult emotional experiences to deal with and there are no easy answers. I still find it very difficult to grasp what has happened to us with our son’s freak horrific accident.

We need wisdom in order to help people overcome their blindness. We need to gently lead and guide them to Jesus. To the point where we can say, Take heart, courage. There is a way forward albeit very slowly.

Some Bible versions seem to suggest that Bartimaeus wasn’t blind from birth. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” ESV

He wanted to recover or regain (NASB) his sight. For many of us who have suffered we may well have lost our way and we to want to regain our sight spiritually speaking. We may want our faith and our passion for Jesus to be restored and things to be the way they were before.

The reality is that for some of us things will never be the way the were before. For many, we are living a new normal. Things have changed, things are different. Some people may have lost a loved one. Others like ourselves are adjusting to a life changing accident.

Having said that, we too like Bartimaeus can ask Jesus to restore. He is a master at restoring and bringing order out of chaos and suffering. He understands. That’s were we have to take courage and trust Him in the process.

Prayer: Dear Lord, May we take courage and look to You for restoration whatever that may look like, Help us to trust You in the process. Amen