We, too, are blind

Bartimaeus

Lord, we too are blind,
But we don’t want to see again.
We are blind to the pain and the poverty around us;
We are blind to the loneliness of people we meet;
We are blind to the violence and disrespect people suffer,
to the quiet desperation caused by debt, and addiction,
by ill-health and fear.
We have seen too much; there are too many broken people;
Lord, we don’t want to see anymore.
We feel safe in our blindness.

But, Lord, our blindness paralyses us.
Our lives are empty if they are not filled with people.
We lack integrity if we isolate ourselves and remain alone.
“A person is a person through other people.”
Without them we are less than human;
And through other people we come face to face with you.
You come to us, not on the clouds,
But in the poor, and the blind, and the lame.
Our blindness cuts us off from them
And we are cut off from you.

Help us, Lord, to recognise our blindness
To know just how paralysed we are.
Give us the will to see again,
To shout with Bartimaeus:
“Jesus, Son of David, take pity on us.”
“Teacher, Lord, we want to see again.”

Amen

A prayer written  for use with the Bartimaeus story

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• Blind (ashleyerin.wordpress.com)