So, often in life, we presume that we are seeing and understanding a situation, a person, a circumstance, a struggle correctly, when, all the while, there may be a deeper reality at work beneath the surface that we are not perceiving and that may give quite a different color to the whole matter before us, if we could be see it more clearly. The story of the blind beggar, "Bartimaeus", recorded in the Gospel of Mark, illustrates most strikingly the point about the importance of our perspective. Bartimaeus sits by the side of the road begging for his living because he is unable to see and, therefore, navigate his way safely and normally through life. So, because of his lack of clear sight, he is limited, sidelined in life.
Suddenly, down the familiar path from which he begs, he hears the noise of a large crowd of people approaching. As they pass by him, he asks what the noise is all about. He is told to keep quiet because Jesus of Nazareth is passing by and He shouldn't be bothered by someone so insignificant as the incessant beggar who has become a regular feature of the landscape on the side of this particular road.
Bartimaeus recognizes the Name of the young man from Nazareth and has heard of His compassion and great miracles of healing. He begins to cry out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me and help me!" His cries are passionate and persistent, for he has seen something that the crowds have not perceived; this Jesus is not just a traveling rabbi and miracle worker, He is the "Son of David", which in the Jewish culture of that day was one of the key terms used for the long awaited Messiah who was promised by God to come and bring deliverance and restoration. The crowds try to shut him down, seeing him only as a nuisance. But Jesus hears Bartimaeus' cry and is arrested by it among all the other noise because he hears in that cry for help the true recognition of who He is and what He has come to do.
Jesus calls for the man and the crowds suddenly change their tune to one of encouraging him to get up and approach Jesus because He is calling for him. The blind man leaps to his feet and begins to make his way with abandon toward to sound of that beckoning Voice. The beggar has seen something beyond the surface, he has see with the eyes of the heart who this man really is: Son of David, Messiah, God with us. As he approaches, Jesus asks him what he desires from Him and Bartimaeus responds, "Master, that I might receive my sight!" Jesus, in His compassion for the broken and the hurting that He was becoming known for, says to the man, "receive your sight; so be it unto you, according to your faith". And suddenly, physical vision, light, color, depth all begin to emerge before him and he can see!
Rejoicing, he moves from the side of the road into middle of the road and follows Jesus with the rest of the eager followers. He is now able to see, to perceive, more clearly and can now live his life free from his former limitations and move off the sidelines of life into the middle of the path that leads him to a new life. For, you see, Bartimaeus had developed an ability to "see", to perceive, to recognize the significance of things beyond the surface, even in his physical blindness; to see into the deeper reality at work around him and he reached out for it and received his deep desire. It is not hard to imagine that from that moment on, he began to be known as one who had keen and perceptive "insight", the ability of "seeing into", things, into people and situations, in ways that others may only have been able to perceive in a surface manner.
Perspective, how we see, understand and perceive life around us, is all important in determining the quality of the life we live, the choices that we make, the reactions we fall into because we have "mis-perceived" the nature of something or someone in a moment of beggarly blindness.
Following are some of my favorite quotes concerning the ability to see life differently, beyond the way things appear on the surface, and thus to be able to engage and enjoy the deeper dimensions of beauty, truth and goodness that are all around us and even within us that we so often fail to recognize and appreciate.
“And now, here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see properly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." -- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Thomas Merton wrote: "To write is to pray, and it's my wish to make of these writings a kind of prayer, too -- a hymn of praise and thanksgiving, a quiet canticle to The Word."
"Silence is essential to hear the Word. To hear the Word is to become sensitive to a Presence that is communicative, a Presence that is speaking to You."--from In the Silence of Solitude, by Eugene L. Romano
“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” Eden Phillips
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.” Frederick Buechner
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