If
We Were All Blind
Keep
back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over
me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let
the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your
sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:13-14
Have you noticed that God has a way of getting our
attention when we are at our worst? I am
ashamed to admit this, but this reached out and got my attention so I thought I
would share it with you.
I read a lot of random things so if something
crosses my desk like magazines or flyers I will often stop and read them
because I have something inside me that thirsts for knowledge. I was at work on Friday and an electrical
co-op magazine was in my mail. I will
normally read through them because they will often have articles about local
people or recipes sent in by customers.
So I open this magazine and there is a picture of a
gentleman at the top of this article. I looked at the picture of this gentleman
and immediately made an assumption. This
man wasn’t handsome by the world’s standards and they showed a photo of him
standing by his truck with the article printed below. The photo didn’t show disfiguring scars. The
title of the article was “Never Let a Good SCAR Go to Waste”.
Before I read the article I had a totally unloving
thought so here is my ashamed part. When
I first looked at the photo, the shallow thought ran through my head about how
this photo was not the typical picture they normally put in articles. Then I read the title and I was drawn into
the story.
This gentleman is a Vietnam vet who was injured and
burned when a smoke grenade went off near his head. He yearned to be a minister but instead
enlisted in the Navy. He had an aptitude
for weapons and became a Brown Water Black Beret which was an elite riverboat
flotilla that patrolled the winding rivers of Southeast Asia. He was a 21 year old newlywed when he went to
war. When the grenade went off it
incinerated his ear, hair and parts of his scalp. It scarred his face, he lost his right eye
and eyelid, split his right hand in half and tore a hole in his chest.
In the field hospital where he was treated he saw
other badly wounded men whose wives recoiled at the sight of their
husbands. As he lay there he weighed his
options and decided he wanted out so he pulled out the intravenous tubes and
waited to die. When his wife Brenda came to see him she didn’t recoil from his
injuries. He apologized to her that he
would never be good-looking again. She
replied, “You never were that good-looking.” They are still together
today.
He took this horrifying experience and turned it
into a ministry. When September 11, 2001
happened, he saw a new generation of young men and women coming back from war
broken. He stated it best when he said,
“I felt my life had meaning again. God
took the experience of my life and gave me a purpose. Never let a good scar go to waste.” He now runs two ranches where war veterans
can go called Operation Warrior Reconnect.
Most of the vets have traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic
stress. He uses his experience to help
others.
What did I learn from this article? In a world where beauty his highly valued, we
would all be better off being born blind.
If I never had the influence of seeing what the world believes to be
beautiful, I would not make an instant assumption about another human
being. I would not know the difference
between a person’s skin color or what the world thinks is beautiful. Each person I would meet would be beautiful
and I would see them from the heart not my eyes.
Yesterday I was working on my computer and I went on
Bible Gateway to look up a scripture.
The scripture of the day was the following:
1 Samuel 16:7
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his
appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord
does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord
looks at the heart.”
God
spoke to me and I was listening. The
Lord doesn’t see us as we see each other.
He looks at our heart. When I
looked back at this gentleman, I saw a different man. Not because he was any different on the
outside but because I am different on the inside. I now look at his picture and see him the way
God sees him. This gentleman is beautiful in my eyes. I plan to pray for his ministry because it is
sorely needed. God bless our troops who
serve so that we can be free.
Prayer for the Day: Heavenly
Father, I was immediately ashamed of myself when I looked at the photo in the
magazine and then read the story about this gentleman. You showed me how
shallow I can be and I want to be different.
Help me to see others as you do.
When I look at others I want to see their heart, not what is on the
outside. Help me to not let the world
influence how I see others. I miss the
beauty of the person if I focus on the outside.
No comments:
Post a Comment