PITY THE BLIND!

Matthew 15:14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

I was a drama major in college before the Lord called me to preach. After he called me to preach I went ahead and finished my degree at the secular institution I was in to have a degree with which to enter seminary. The way I figured it was, "I will be involved in public speaking as a preacher I might as well have a degree in it via drama!"

When I was a Junior a 6 hour course was developed for drama majors called "Drama Conservatory". About every three weeks we would put on a one-act play and were involved in almost every aspect of the "theatre". One of us would direct and the others would act, construct the set, sell tickets, etc. My first part was a very small one because the other students did not know if I had any talent (some people still don't think the answer is no). Eventually we did over 20 plays in 2 years and I was able to have a few starring roles, so to speak.

Back to my first part. I played a blind man lost in the woods with several other blind people. The one sighted person had died of a heart attack unbeknownst to us. I had one line "Pity the Blind!" which I gave at several intervals. Apparently I was not only blind... I had a screw loose as well! The others were much more conversant than me and the play was called.... are you ready for this? "The Blind." Fortunately it was the first production we did and was soon mercifully forgotten as we rolled out the other plays every 2 to 3 weeks.

Blind people do not necessarily need pity more so than anyone else. A strange fact I learned in St. Augustine, home to the Florida School for the Deaf & Blind, is that, generally speaking, deaf people feel sorry for blind people because they cannot see while blind people feel sorry for deaf people because they cannot hear!

There is a saying, "There are none so blind as those who WILL not see." I know a lot of people like that and I'm figuring you do too. I was reading an excellent book, PAY-PER-VIEW, by Dr. Jeff Amsbaugh the other day [this column first appeared in a slightly different form on the blog on 2-13-2009] and one paragraph reached out and slapped me in the face. It could have been written about several couples I know but I am sure Amsbaugh had someone else in mind. The paragraph went like this:

In certain homes one parent is emotionally distant and unavailable while the other parent gets too close to the child and smothers him or her with attention. Sometimes one parent is authoritarian while the other parent is completely passive. When the parents do not present a united front, the child becomes confused. This confusion has the potential to be a breeding ground for bitterness and rebellion.

That is exactly what happened in one of the homes I alluded to earlier. Unfortunately they decided to blame the local church for their family problems and so who knows if they will ever get resolved. Hopefully, by the grace of God they will. In the meantime let us be careful of our own blind spots and remember to, "Pity the blind!"