Ironically enough, this weekend had a theme, which was all about blind-sides. Last night, we watched The Blindside, with Sandra Bullock. (Don’t worry, I won’t give away the ending. :)) I know some people with blind-sides. You may know people, or be someone, with a blind-side. No one likes to be approached from this side, because for obvious reasons, they won’t see you coming! Naturally, it’s unsettling to have that feeling of surprise, especially when it could be dangerous, to you or them.

Today, the family went to church for the first time in quite awhile. It was a church we’d never before visited. The title of the sermon was “Blindsides”. The topic was all of us. You see we all have these areas where we are unwilling to shine light, within ourselves, where we hold onto our grudges, biases, prejudices, jealousies, contempt, and judgementalism. We don’t like to admit that we have these things, especially in church, where we are sitting in our seats looking blessed, caressed, and dressed to impress. We like to be thought of as wonderful Easter treats: lovely, bright colors on the outside and sweet, yummy-goodness on the inside.

Luke 7:36-50  is a passage that talks about contradictions, as our pastor said. The muckidy-muck who invited Jesus to dinner sits in stark contrast to the “sinful woman” who decided to crash the party. The Bible is full of contrasts, real, odd stories of actual, odd people, just like you and me. Those people weren’t aware of these contradictions in themselves any more than we are aware of our own. When I was a child and I heard Bible stories in Sunday school, you wouldn’t have been able to convince me that the people in the bathrobes on the flannel graphs were regular people even with the aid of a time machine and the world’s fastest course in ancient Aramaic!

The thing is, a lot of people grow up and hold similar opinions to that once-upon-a-time me. Every one of us benefits from a reality check from time to time. The reason those stories are even included in the Bible is to help us. God gets us. “For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14. Thankfully, we can count on Him to never run out of breath to remind us how much He loves us. He gets us, but He doesn’t want us to just hang out in the mud forever. Jesus came to save us, so that part is done. We just have to ask that our eyes will be opened. 🙂

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