Dear Friends:

They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village” (Mk 8:22-26)

My mind is frequently and notoriously absent without leave–meaning it’s off wandering in more pleasant environs than the current circumstance in which I am physically pleasant.

This aggravates my spouse, son, friends and colleagues when they hear me answer their “either/or” questions with a mumbled “yes” or a “maybe.” It isn’t funny to them. It isn’t really amusing to me either because I am very serious about what I am thinking and it is often a hard jolt back to reality.

A financial executive with one of my clients “has my number” on this. When she observes the tell-tale signs of my staring off into space, she points with her index and middle fingers at first her eyes and then mine. Then she says, “Hello, Planet You, focus, focus.”

It is important to live and operate in reality. We may joke and jibe about eccentric non-conformists and “space-cadets” who live in “fantasy-land,” but one can be a buttoned down, prompt and efficient performer and be just as detached from reality.

“He’s lost his vision.”

“She’s out of touch.”

How many times have you heard these things said? Have you said them about someone? Has someone said them about you.”

In a world of  emails, tweets, texts and instant messaging, things are said faster and harsher than used to be the case. Criticisms fly and all the more so for the relative anonymity of cyber-space.

There certainly is more communication and less reflection. We suffer for that because words without thought and context are like boulders on a paved road–there’s nothing they can do but damage something.

What is meant when one is described as having “lost vision” or is “out of touch?”

I think we can agree that a loss of vision means a loss of focus and purpose. Put another way, someone without vision may be wandering aimlessly through life with no goal in mind.

When one stops caring about where he is going and what matters most he loses touch with those who love him and want the best for him. Again, one does not have to be a vacant-eyed, empty-hearted, homeless person to be out of touch in this way. The truth be told, there are a lot of the visionless and touch-deprived at the desks and in the pews around us. Sometimes they are sharing a table and a bed even after they have checked out.

How does this happen?

People of  vision find a place to pursue it. They gather others who follow them there in pursuit of the vision. The path taking them there is worn into a road. Houses are built along that road. Gardens are planted. Businesses are opened to trade with those living there. Institutions are established to first implement the vision and later to employ those who seek to preserve it. Furniture and equipment is purchased. Financial plans and pension funds are developed. Density increases and resources are depleted.

Eventually eyes are turned from the vision to comparison and competition with those pursuing their vision. We erect fences and firewalls to keep “them” out and/or to keep us in. And gradually we become nearsighted looking only to our interests and our existence. We become blind to everyone and everything else and lose touch with other ideas, thoughts, needs and feelings.

There you have it. At the end of this descent from grace is a loss of vision and disconnection from community even in the midst of community. Intimacy dies and its evil cousin, “familiarity,” moves in and breeds contempt.

Whatever the cause, the man in Bethsaida has lost his vision. He desperately needs touch. The people near him who undoubtedly love him have come to the end of their abilities to help him. They bring “the blind man to Jesus and “beg” him to touch their friend.

Jesus knows the problem. He sees through the depth of the darkness and brings light. He recognizes the drift of the prodigal and the empty busyness of the elder brother and offers the embrace of grace.

Jesus grasps the hand of the blind man and leads him out of the village and away from the familiar byways that enable him to function long after he’s lost the ability to see where he is going.

He takes him to the open fields where there is freedom to move and gain perspective. With the Creator’s instinct that has inspired generations of mothers to moisten their hands and tenderly wipe away the grime, blood and tears of misadventures and pain from the faces of their children, Jesus spits on his hands and restores the light of day to the sightless eyes of his child.

“Can you see anything?” Jesus knows that even the smallest gleam will bring hope.

“I see people, but they look like trees walking.”

Even out in the wide and open spaces in the company of Jesus, the loss of perspective lingers.

The false premises of sin are monstrous lies. They can mistakenly cause us to see humanity in what is inhuman. We may see people in disproportionate size to the reality that God wants us to see. Trees do not walk, and it is a dark pagan superstition that would say otherwise.

Jesus does not stop with one touch (Phil 1:6). When we wake up from our traumatized, vengeance-seeking, indulgent self-righteousness, he wants us to see him (Ps 17:15). He alone is real and from him all other things take their truth (Ac 17:25; 1 Cor 1:30; Col 1:16).

Jesus lays his healing hands on the man’s eyes again. The man looks, really focuses, and finds that his sight is restored to the right perspective. He can see Jesus clearly.

Here is where Jesus’ ways part company with our ways and we’d best pay attention.

We would likely go back into town intending to show the old crowd that we can see. Wouldn’t we want to go back to our former haunts and companions with new eyes expecting to see a different result.

Jesus knows better. Just as his new wine of the gospel requires new and flexible skins or it will burst the old, rigid skins and be lost, he knows that eyesight restored from the ravages of trying to see things our way, will need a change of scenery to gain strength and focus on his will.

Do not mistake the loving kindness of Jesus for the ruthlessness of his purpose. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” not to give them some eye salve and comfort before sending them back into the darkness (Lk 19:10). He is light, the essential condition of vision, “and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 Jn 1:5).

Jesus’ instruction to the man is simple and blunt. “Do not go back into the village.”

It takes the courage of faith to follow Jesus with the new vision that he has given us instead of going back to see what we missed before. The way of the gospel and its victory is always forward.

The world behind me, the cross before me,

No turning back, no turning back.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

P.S. If you received this it is because you requested it or someone you know passed it on to you. If you wish to continue to receive this weekly meditation, simply send an email to me at
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My books, Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer and Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places are available at www.amazon.com, www.adventistbookcenter.com, or www.target.com.

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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.

Kent and his beloved Patricia are enjoying their 31st year of marriage. They are the proud parents of Andrew, a college student.