Getting What We Need
Excerpt from Matthew 20:29-34
“What do you want for me to do?”
Reflection by William C. Green
Since God already knows what we need, why is it necessary to ask for help? Because that’s the way faith expresses itself. It resists the temptation to suppose that what will be, will be, and our job is simply to deal with it. It resists the resignation that says, “I’ll just leave it up to God” or “It’s God’s will.” Faith does not capitulate to circumstance. It recognizes that what is unmanageable or unbearable is not so with God.
This requires honesty about the facts. This is what I can’t do. This is what I can’t face. This is what, despite my best efforts, I can’t handle. “O God, without you, I’m lost” and, maybe, “I’m too tired to care.”
In today’s story, two blind men sitting by the road learn that Jesus is passing by. They cry out to him. As if he didn’t know, Jesus asks what they want him to do. “Let our eyes be opened.” These men had not blindly accepted their fate; they were not so lost to their need that they missed a higher power at hand; they could not be silenced. Jesus heard them, touched their eyes and they were healed.
Is this impossible to believe? Think again about blessing or healing you know that could not have been expected.
God wants us to ask for help. Faith is a willingness to be amazed.
Prayer
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…” Keep that song in my heart, O God. Amen.
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