REFLECTION FOR MARCH 15 – Kirk Vandezande

Today’s Passage from The Bible: Mark 10:46-52

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So, throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. 

Reflection – Kirk Vandezande

As a teenager, I tried to poke holes in sermons and expose clergy as hypocrites. Funny how it goes. The harder I worked to humiliate clergy; the more God revealed Himself to me through their responses.

When I reached college, I declared a showdown.  Dropped the gloves.  Challenged the Almighty to show Himself and I would affirm my commitment, or else to leave me alone so I could pursue the idols of many freshmen students. He sent Wil Bingham, my college chaplain. Wil looked the loser to most students. Wil’s self-conscious bumbling made students squirm. By Week Three for three years, Sunday service was down to Wil and me and one or two other students.

Funny how it goes. Week Three of my first year, I was looking for the door, too, when Wil mentioned a high-altitude retreat called a Search for Christian Maturity, an October weekend at timberline in a hand-built cabin with a cathedral ceiling, a salvaged pipe organ run on gasoline, heated with coal. Billed as a Christian “woodsie,” it was Cursillo for college students, though I did not know it then.

The Holy Spirit showed up. Afterwards, I asked Wil to teach me to pray. He gave me scripture readings and a weekly appointment. Again, the Holy Spirit showed up and I learned to see existence through bifocal glasses. There is the conventional world we commonly accept and there is evidence for those who look that the Holy Spirit is on the move.

No doubt you know the saying, Seeing is believing. Spiritual vision is the inverse: believing is seeing.  The more I pray, the more I see answers to prayer. It happens too frequently to be coincidental, though I have no complaint when people around me see matters differently. I would rather be judged a loser, like my mentor Wil, than to give up looking for the Holy Spirit on the move. Like ol’ Bartimaeus, I am waiting and watching for the moment when someone says to me, ‘Take heart; get up, He is calling you.’

None of us has all the answers. We are all blind beggars, but as Christians we have the divine privilege to tell other beggars where to find a warm meal.  Until the moment comes that we are called home, may we be found faithful.

See you on the other side.