When life blinds you, when it takes you off guard; when your confident self is going about its day and there is a sudden interruption and everything spins, where do you “go”? I guess in reality, you may need more context because all of us go to different places, and what place we go to would have to do with the context of the interruption. For some interruptions, it could be anger or rage, with others shame, and with some blinding moments, we could easily end up latching on to being the victim of our circumstance and hold tight to that new identity, for a moment — or worse, a season. Fight, Flight, or Freeze comes to mind. We oftentimes are blinded by circumstances and the truth we walked in just moments before seems a distant memory or a forgotten truth, and we walk blindly for a few steps or longer as our identities, our “self”, becomes circumstantial (dependent or defined by circumstances) instead of defined by truth. But how do we reset? How do we weather? How do we get back to who we were or BETTER YET, become who we are to become — our best self? We talked about this last Sunday.
In Acts 9 we get introduced to an incredible character in this epic. Saul: devout Pharisee, incredibly educated, honored, decorated and respected. In just half of the chapter, there is SO MUCH that happens! He is blinded while going about his confident, right, noble, justified self and all of life is immediately changed for him. He’s not only “blinded” by his circumstances while going about his day, he’s ACTUALLY BLINDED for three days, and what do we see? He’s found praying, blind, and hasn’t eaten in 3 days. Now, I don’t know if he was a victim for 2 of those and finally resorted to prayer or if he prayed for three days straight, but what the Bible — what God intentionally communicates is that Saul was found praying after 3 days of blindness. So our question is – What are we found doing after being knocked on our butt, blinded by something that makes NO sense? Saul heard what God had to say because he didn’t go about his life blind still marching down the same road, but instead was stationary, praying, contemplating life, and instead of explaining away a circumstance or becoming a victim or refusing to be humbled from his high place he agreed to surrender his life. He put his whole past self aside and became open to whoever God had for him to become and guess who that was? His best self, because God knew him before birth, knew every hair on his head, every sorrow, every fear, every self-worth, every insecurity – God had captured every tear in Saul’s life in a bottle, and guess what — God loves you with the same relentless, forgiving, gigantic love. He knew you before the earth was formed – think about that for a minute. God wild with that truth. Obsess over that rather than the trivial things we find easy to obsess over!
So today, no matter what’s blinded you in life – it’s time to let it go and leave it behind. The tapes that seem to run on repeat, the voices between your ears that keep you from being 100% you, the lies and tricks the devil uses to convince you that darkness can somehow overtake light – we need to believe Truth, not circumstances. You need to be truth (what God says about you), not circumstance.
Praying that you grasp and hold on to even a fraction of this message from last Sunday and through prayer and time getting closer to God you walk with more confidence and peace – somewhere between “the fear of God and the comfort of the Holy Spirit” Acts 9:31
This world needs a better story; let’s go tell it!