Ancestral wisdom for today’s life.
There is a parable in the Bible that always encourages me when I lose hope.
The text is entitled A Blind Man of Jericho Receives His Sight (Luke 18:35–43).
It is the story of a blind man begging and standing on a road outside Jericho.
At one point, the blind man hears a lot of noise and asks what is happening. Someone tells him, “Jesus, the Nazarene is passing by on the road.”
The blind man’s heart is overjoyed and calls out to Jesus. The people tell him to be quiet, not to disturb. And the blind man — who doesn’t give a damn — insists, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!
Jesus has the blind man brought into his presence and asks him, “What do you want me to do?”
The blind man asks to see. And Jesus grants it to him, saying, “Receive it; your faith has saved you.”
Let us analyze the main elements of the story.
A blind man begging by the side of a road.
At some point in life, we have made decisions that have had terrible consequences. Decisions that have petrified us in a fixed place: in an unhappy marriage, in an exhausting job that does not dignify us, let alone make us feel fulfilled.
Our heart does not belong in these places, but we need to pay the bills at the end of the month or keep our personal life from falling apart.
All those fears, holding us back from the edge of the road, keep us from walking. Life always offers us more; what happens is that you have to be willing to walk its paths.
And it is not easy when you get older, and you have responsibilities and people in your care, right?
The blind man hears that Jesus is near.
Being stuck in life sucks. We’re not going to kid ourselves, nor are we going to romanticize it. But it doesn’t stop us from being alert.
The noise alerts the blind man in our parable that the BIG OPPORTUNITY is near.
And at that moment, he does not hesitate to cry out to Jesus to claim his chance.
And it is curious because the same people who have informed him that Jesus is near are the ones who rebuke him when he calls out loudly.
But the blind man insists despite the people who ask him to shut his mouth.
And in the end, those same people bring him to the presence of the Lord at the express request of Jesus.
It is the same in life. You have to be attentive to the opportunity; it may take years to come — life is not a Hollywood movie where the hero is redeemed in an hour and a half.
But when that opportunity comes, you must claim it and ignore all those who want you to shut up because you’re supposedly a nuisance.
Do you know why?
Jesus is on the way for you. That opportunity that comes into your life is in your way for and because of you.
What happens is that people want you to continue being the blind man on the side of the road, to continue occupying your position in their lives: father, mother, employee, boyfriend, girlfriend, you name it.
They want you dependent.
Jesus asks the blind man.
In the parable, Jesus asks the blind man a seemingly simple question. “What do you want?”
But it’s not a simple question to answer. Most people don’t know what they want. And they spend their lives lost.
The good thing (because in everything wrong, there is something good) about being the blind beggar on the road is that you have suffered so much and swallowed so much shit that when you learn that there is a life-changing opportunity in sight and you claim it, and life asks you “What do you want?”
You know exactly, with hairs and signs, what the answer is.
Pain has that particularity; it shows you what you want and don’t want.
And that determination or inner fire makes you hold on to that opportunity as if your life depended on it because it depends on it.
That determination is your faith, and that’s why Jesus says to the blind man, “Take it up; your faith has saved you.”
Takeaway.
In the end, you are going to save yourself because you are the one who is in the shit doing what you have to do, but with your ears open to detect the first opportunity that comes your way.
In the end, you will save yourself because you will be the one to claim that opportunity for yourself when it presents itself.
In the end, you will save yourself because you will be the one who will not shut up when the whole world tells you to shut your mouth.
In the end, you will save yourself because all the pain you are going through is making your priorities clear, and thanks to that, now you know perfectly well what you are asking from life.
Ultimately, you will save yourself because your determination will make you fight for this new life to the last consequences.
In the end, you will be saved because even in the worst, just like the blind man, you always kept your faith that one day you would be able to see, and the Universe/God will reward you.
A virtual hug
AG