Skip to main content

To Pray Like Bartimaeus

When you ask God for something - peace, patience, healing, answers to work, life, or people problems, etc. - do you stop what you're doing and turn your brain off of everything but Jesus? Do you actually look at Jesus? Or do you, like I so often do, suddenly remember something you told someone you'd pray about for them and rattle off a quick request? Maybe you find yourself in traffic when you're late or unable to find a solution to a problem at work or with your child or a friend, you're frustrated or irritated, you say a prayer something like, "God, help me!" Then you move rapidly on to the next issue at hand.

This morning I read the story of Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10: 46-52). Actually, I read it three or four times. I've read it before. It's a fairly well-known Gospel story, but this time was different. I got emotional as I read it. I wondered why Jesus asked Bartimaeus what he wanted. Wasn't that fairly obvious? I mean, the guy was blind and Jesus was a known healer. Duh, Jesus! Right?

As I read it over and over again, I sensed the tenderness behind Jesus' question. He knew Bartimaeus wanted to be healed. He could have healed him as he walked by without slowing His stride, without speaking a word, without anyone knowing He'd done anything, but He let Bartimaeus shout out after Him. He let the crowd try to shush him. He let Bartimaeus cry out again, "Mercy! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Bartimaeus wanted Jesus desperately. Jesus was his only hope, and he knew it. He wasn't about to let a few reprimands keep him quiet. On Jesus' part, He didn't want to just heal Bartimaeus, like I said, He could have done that without even a twitch of His pinky. No, He wanted more. He wanted a relationship. He wanted Bartimaeus to know that He loved him. He wanted to look into Bartimaeus' eyes the second they could see, and He wanted Bartimaeus to look into His.

I want to pray with the hope of Bartimaeus. I want to make my requests with the same determination he had. I want to be ready to run to Jesus when He says to me, "come here." And when He opens my eyes, I want to be looking straight into His.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Do You Wait?

The barren one is now in her sixth month.  Not one promise from God is empty of power  for nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1: 37 The Passion Translation I've never thought that much about Elizabeth. Gabriel speaks here to Mary - the mother-to-be of none other than GOD Himself! Who has a thought to spare for this side character in THE story of divine visitation? God come to earth. Wow. Talk about a headline for the New York Times! Why does Gabriel even mention Elizabeth? I don't know, but I'm glad he did.  I read these verses with a different perspective this morning.  "The barren one." Elizabeth is now past childbearing years. It's not a secret. Everyone in her community knows she's barren (it's obvious). The life part of her life is over. There is no hope for her to have her dream - a life like her friends have. She's different from her family, her neighbors. In a time when children are everything, she has nothing.  And now it's too late...
1 comment
Read more

Believing the Lies

My husband and I recently watched The Help - a story about a group of African American women who worked as maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the '60s. One of the protagonists works for a woman "who got no b'ness havin' babies." This woman, this family maid and nanny, tells her little two year old ward regularly, "You is pretty. You is smart. You is impor'ant." How difficult it is for us to believe that about ourselves - really, to believe anything good about ourselves. I always try to be my raw self when I write a blog post. Today is no exception. So I confess that I've been drowning in a storm of lies lately. My head knows they're lies, and I could easily tell anyone else in the same place that they're lies, but I haven't been able to get a grip. There have been so many of them coming at me at once. It seems that I just break the surface, gulp some fresh air of truth then get pulled back under. One thing I know: the enemy of our ...
7 comments
Read more

Kippy Is Born

I awoke in the middle of the night or so it seemed for it was still dark outside my window. I was groggy, but I knew I'd heard something. What was it? The puppies! I was awake in an instant. Glady was having her puppies! I scrambled out of bed as fast as I could and ran down the two flights of stairs that took me to where my mom and one of my three sisters sat and watched Glady, lying in an open box filled with old blankets. She was licking one of three tiny black puppies. I'd never seen anything so small that was actually a real live puppy! They were so small even I could have fit one in the palm of my hand - and I was only 7 years old. They were cuter than any stuffed animal I'd ever seen. I wanted so much to hold one, but my mom said that Glady wouldn't like that very much, so I just watched as she licked them (Mom said that was her way of giving them a bath) and as they snuggled with her. They couldn't even open their eyes yet. It wasn't too long before the ...
1 comment
Read more