Friday; December 21

One day, when Jesus and His disciples were walking along they noticed a man who had been born blind.  The disciples decided it was a good time for an intellectual discussion so, “... His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’” (John 9:2).  On the surface, trying to understand what led to the man’s condition might seem important to figuring out how to help him, but rather than interrogate the man, Jesus healed him.  Jesus was more interested in satisfying the need than understanding the background that led to the condition. 
          Have we ever found ourselves in the disciples’ shoes?  We see someone in need and the first thing we do is try to figure out why this person is struggling.  If we hope to help heal the long-term issue, we have to understand how they got to this point in the first place, right?  While there might be some validity to this human logic, what we often see in Jesus is the healing of the hurt rather than an investigation into the root of the problem. 
          Over the next few days, we are all going to have several opportunities to help people – what are we going to do?  Are we going to assess people and wait until we find someone who hasn’t contributed to their neediness or are we going to just reach out and help people no matter why they need our help?   Are we going to withhold our assistance until we can justify that someone has a legitimate need or are we just going to help them out of a charitable heart?
          Let’s be people who are willing to help.  More often than not, it doesn’t hurt us all that much and it might be a great big benefit to someone who needs it – and needs it now!
          Think About It

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