“Is your new friend blind too?” Maria asked.
Maria was not asking me. She was asking about me.
“No,” Gabi said. Ensue laughter.
Let’s back up.
Gabi is one of the women who attends Iglesia Gracía y Paz, the church where I’m serving. Her voice is a
staple during Sunday-morning worship, and if it so happens that the whole band is out of town (like last week), she can carry us a cappella.
Gabi, who has been blind since birth, is also a member of CEMIPRE, the ministry center that offers courses on Braille, computer programs and other topics, all the while sharing the love and hope of Christ.
The other day after grabbing lunch, Gabi and I decided to walk downtown while she filled me in on the best places to buy chocolate and shop for deals (she gets me). She left her walking stick in her bag and took my arm as we set off.
No problem. I walk all the time. Since I was like 1.
Having Gabi on my arm was like taking a cat and cutting its whiskers. My judgment—compromised. Poor Gabi.
I walked her right into people, posts, signs, you name it. Mind you, we were on the most crowded footpath in Viña del Mar during rush hour. It seemed like someone had opened a floodgate of pedestrians, and we were walking upstream. Several times I came to an abrupt stop to let people pass. It helps if you advise the person you’re walking with of this first, just FYI.
With all my concentration invested in navigating us (poorly) through the oncoming foot-traffic, I wasn’t paying as much attention to my half of the sidewalk.
Enter payphone
Bam!
“Ouch!”
Shooting pain in shoulder.
To be fair, this was not your average payphone. It looked exactly like a landline telephone. Unassuming. Innocuous. It happened to be sitting on a cement ledge that jutted out from one of the store fronts.
Depth perception, what depth perception?
Despite Gabi’s chuckles and the bewildered looks of some passersby, we continued on until we met up with her friends. To be honest, I still don’t know what exactly I did (or didn’t do) to cause her friend, Maria, to doubt my sight. Either way, I figured the question was well-deserved. Maybe she heard us coming.
So often I put too much stake in my own capabilities, whether it be walking down the street, moving to a new country, speaking Spanish or communicating the mystery of Christ (while walking, in Chile, speaking Spanish! Ah!).
My first night in Chile, as I unpacked my clothes and looked out at the twinkling city, it was a bit like being slapped in the shoulder with a telephone. At that moment, no amount of Spanish speaking or adventure-seeking spirit could stifle a pang of fear. The city looked big. And there was just me. Lord, help.
He did. In fact, he even saw this moment of panic coming, because he gave me some advance reading on the plane ride over.
Deuteronomy. Specifically, chapter 30, where Moses is talking to the Israelites after reviewing the law...talk about overwhelming. I mean, start with the Ten Commandments and by the time he got to clean and unclean food I would have been tweaking.
“Excuse me, just to clarify, it’s okay to eat animals that chew cud if they have a split hoof divided in two? Is that right? Oh ok good…now what is cud?”
However, Moses was confident, in God’s word. In verse 11, he says “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach… No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so you may obey it.”
We are able because, because He makes us so.
It’s interesting to think of Moses’ words in light of Christ.
The word is very near you.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” John 1:14.
It is in your mouth and in your heart.
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will
remind you of everything I have said to you," John 14:26.
If Moses had hope for the Israelites, certainly we are at an advantage with Christ risen and the promise of the Holy Spirit.
The commandments are still hard, in and of themselves. Love me first. Become last. Make my name known.
The people are no more (maybe less) capable than before (with bruises to prove it…).
But nevermind that.
It is not too difficult, for him.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit," John 15:5.
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