Recovery Devotional 290 Trees Walking

JMD Devotional 290 Mark 8:22-25 Trees Walking

And they came to Bethsaida. And [people] brought to Him a blind man and begged Him to touch him. And He caught the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands upon him, He asked him, Do you [possibly] see anything?

And he looked up and said, I see people, but [they look] like trees, walking. Then He put His hands on his eyes again; and the man looked intently [that is, fixed his eyes on definite objects], and he was restored and saw everything distinctly [even what was at a distance].

I was in a rush with ninety million things on my mind. A triple load of college classes, the usual chaos at the workplace and a house closing coming soon had me wound pretty tight. I was looking forward to a few “free” hours of badly needed time off, but on the way to take a hike I remembered that I had to stop by the Public Library and grab some reference material. Everyone there was moving in slow motion, from the person at the reference desk, to the people between me and the copy machine. Going up and down the main aisle, I pushed in four chairs left out in the way, muttering under my breath about ‘stupid people’. Before I left, I had one more thing to look for in the audio section, when a woman stepped in front of me with two little children in tow, like little ducklings. I had to back peddle, march in time, anxiously looking for an opportunity to proceed either to the right or to the left to no avail, I was blocked. Finally (just before the glaciers all melted), I was able to get around her and to my destination, when I heard her call my name. She was a blur, but when I stopped and focused, I slowly recognized the face of an old friend of my church past.

Neil Anderson, in his book, “The Bondage Breaker”, uses this passage to address our tendency to see people as obstacles rather than as precious souls made in the image of God. Some of my days I behave as if I am a downhill skier and the people I encounter are trees blocking my path. Zing, zing, zing; I feel successful if I avoid intersecting them; but success in God’s eyes might well be defined by engaging them instead.

Dear God,

Please help me to slow down without letting everything depending on me to fall into shambles! I am too busy when I am too busy for people. I need you to touch my eyes again; because I see most people as obstacles. Help me to see them as You see them; give me a heart of compassion. May I not assume that my important things outrank everyone else’s agenda.

Amen

All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by

the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

*New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

I originally produced these blogs between 2006 and 2007, which were then published in my book, JMD Recovery Devotionals. In 2010, I am sending these out to a few people as I review them and see if my point of view has changed.

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