I’m spending Christmas in Texas during break with my friend
Megan. On our way to Texas, I was messing with my right eye and I ended up giving myself
pink eye. I wear a contact in my right eye and had to take it out due to
the pink eye. Without a contact I can only see things clearly that are about 5
feet in front of me.
How was I blind for 24
hours?
When I was 6 years old my parents found out that I had lazy eye in my left eye.
They also found out after contacting many eye specialists that the lazy eye
could have only been corrected when I was 3-4 years old. Most people that have
lazy eye have an eye that goes off in a different direction than their “good”
eye, but mine does not. I
have been blessed with a normal looking lazy eye. To understand what
vision looks like through my lazy eye, think about being nearsighted and
farsighted at the same time. I can see everything around me, but it is
extremely blurry and I can’t read anything.
Was I really blind? No.
Did it give me a new
perspective of what it would be like to be blind? Yes.
While Megan and I were traveling I was getting really
frustrated that I couldn’t see the scenery that we were going through. I was
getting really frustrated that I couldn’t help her find a hotel. I was getting
frustrated that my vision was impaired to only things 5 feet in front of me. I
was getting angry at Megan for things that she had no control over. I was
getting angry at the fact that I could not see practically anything.
I’m so blessed to have
vision in my right eye.
I’m so blessed to be
able to wear a contact that will help me to have 20/20 vision.
I’m blessed to be able
to see out of one of my eyes.
Through this experience, I’m legitimately freaked out about
the thought of ever losing vision in my right eye. The thought of being almost
blind for the rest of my life scares me.
What about people that
are living in our society right now that are blind?
What about those people
that have never been able to see the light of day?
What about those people
in foreign countries that have never been able to see a doctor about their
impaired vision?
What about the people
that are “blind” just because they cannot afford to get glasses?
Why does being blind even scare me?
I think the real
questions here are…
How
often do we think that God can’t do a miracle?
How
often do we not have faith that He can do healings here in the 21st
century?
How
often do we forget the powerfulness of the God we serve?
How
often do we forget that He knit us in our mothers’ wombs & knows everything
about us?
Once Megan and I settled in a hotel for the night, I was researching pink eye and
trying to find a home remedy. I even posted a status on facebook about how I thought I had pink
eye. After doing some research, I found out that I should try using some eye drops to get rid of the
bacteria. Also, one of my squadmates for The World Race suggested that I use a warm tea bag over my eye.
I convinced Megan to take me to Krogers so that I could get
the eye drops to try them out in addition to the tea bags. While I was there, I
found the eye drops and decided to look for some hand sanitizer to keep for the
duration of the trip. I was walking around squinting and trying to find hand
sanitizer when a random guy asked me if I was okay. I told him that I had actually
just found the hand sanitizer that I was looking for.
I started talking to this guy about how I was practically
blind at that time. The first words out of his mouth were “Do you know Jesus
Christ?” I said, “Well, yeah I’m actually a
missionary.” He continued to tell
me that God can heal my eye, but not just my eye that had pink eye, but my eye
that had lazy eye. We continued to talk about the miracles that Jesus is
doing here on earth today. We both served as an encouragement to each other in
sharing stories of God’s faithfulness.
I have never really BELIEVED that God can heal my lazy eye.
I mean, yeah God can do miracles today, but why would He heal my lazy eye?
Have I doubted my
all-powerful God?
Have I doubted what the
God of this Universe can do in my life?
When we are called to
be Jesus’ hands and feet, does that mean we can perform the same miracles that
He did?
I know there are stories of past and previous World Racers
who have had the opportunity to witness the healing hand of God. I know that
God can perform miracles.
In Matthew 17, Jesus was healing the boy who had a demon
within Him. Jesus’ disciples doubted what He could do. Jesus told them, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you
the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this
mountain, ‘Move from here to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible
for you.'” If you don’t have any idea how small a mustard seed is,
it is about the size of a ballpoint pen, maybe smaller. God is commanding us to
have faith that we can do these same miracles if we have faith that they will
happen.
The next day, my pink eye did not hurt and it was not
crusty like pink eye normally is. I proceeded to use another tea bag in the
morning before I left and by mid-day I was pink eye free. Now, the real
question is…Did the tea bags
and eye drops really heal my eye or was it the prayers from that random guy,
myself, or others? Only God knows.
Lord God Almighty let
us be a generation that moves mountains.
Lord God Almighty let
us be a generation that performs miracles of healing.
Lord God Almighty let
us be Your hands and feet wherever we are.
