Disabilities Displayed

This man has literally been blind since he entered the world. He's never seen ANYTHING.
Not a sunset, or a beautiful girl, how his face looks, what fingers look like, an autumn tree, or even a polar bear. (scratch that last example, neither have I.. but you get my point).

His ENTIRE life he has had to live with this blindness-- this disability-- this weakness.
I'm sure he's questioned his parents, his family, his friends time after time: WHY? Why would God do this to me? What did I do to deserve this? Why do I have to be different than everyone else?

He's endured  relentless ridicule from the community everyday and harrassment from the religious leaders for his "sin" that caused this disability.

But Jesus tells us in John 9 that this man's "weakness" wasn't the cause of sin, punishment or disability at all. In fact, Jesus says this man's blindness was given him by God SO THAT God's power could be seen IN HIM.

Jesus spits in some mud and restores his sight in an instant.

Hold up.

Don't you think that if this man had known since birth, that along with his blindness also would come an encounter with Jesus Himself, a miracle of healing done by Jesus, an opportunity for the world to see God's glory, salvation granted, and an entire chapter in the Bible about his story, that he would begin to view his weakness MUCH differently?

He would understand that God doesn't create weaknesses as disabilites, He creates them for our destinies. Each time someone threw ridicule his way, I bet he would've been able to shrug it off because his faith was in something greater... something to come.

No longer would he view it as his disability, but as his opportunity to meet Jesus face to face, and to be a beautiful display of God's power shining out of him for the entire world to see.

What if we could view our weaknesses the same way? Physical, mental, emotional, whatever it may be... however inconvenient, however painful, however constant, however different, however noticable, however ridiculed, however "unacceptable", however embarrassing... it is our platform to display God's power to the world.

Rather than letting our weaknesses hold us back, we're meant to let them push us forward to the glory that is to come. But this man didn't even know for the majority of his life that his destiny for greatness was found in his greatest disability. How fortunate that we are already told, that we can have FAITH in what is to come.

So stop fighting your weaknesses, surrender it to God, and let Him fulfill the destiny for greatness He created you for. And just like this man, the first thing you will lay your new eyes upon will be Jesus Himself, and the first thing the world will lay their eyes upon when they look at you, will be the power of Jesus displayed within you.

"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18