Playing Blind
Jasen Bracy always wanted to play football, but retinal cancer he developed as a toddler took his eyesight by the time he was age 7. How could he play a fast-paced contact sport like football if he couldn't see?
This was the question before him. Yet young Jasen would not be dissauded. As he got older, he began calling around to different youth leagues to see if there were any teams that would take a chance on a kid who was sold out to following guidance and direction to make his dreams come true. He found just such a in the Modesto Raiders.
"The way he was on the phone, I just said, 'Come on we'll figure it out,'" coach David Nichols told CBS News.
Jasen started out as a running back, but soon advanced to ... wait for it ... quarterback!
"It's all memory," Jasen said. "It's all about having trust in the player, the receiver and the team. I have to trust them 100%.
Upworthy reports:
Bracy's teammates guide him into position on the field and his dad coaches him from the sidelines using a walkie-talkie that transmits to his helmet. "After the play starts, I may tell him, 'Hey, run to your right, let's get upfield,' or 'Watch out, somebody's coming to hit you,'" Bracy Sr. said.
All that trust, all that deep leaning into guidance and direction seems to have paid off. Not long after, Bracy led the Raiders to a 33-6 win.
You do not need to be sighted to walk in the ways of the Lord. It is not our eyes, but the "eyes of our hearts" that we need opened. When we trust in His Word, His will, and his ways, our path will always be clear. His eye and His mighty hand will guide us! As He says in His word, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you" (Psalms 32:8, ESV).
Commit to the Lord's guidance, and commit His Word to your memory. Follow Jasen's example, "It's all about memory ... It's all about having trust ... [You] have to trust [Him] 100%."
"The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand" (Psalms 37: 23-24, ESV).
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV).
Playing Hide and Seek With God
According to Brittanica.com, hide-and-seek was [first] described by a Greek writer named Julius Pollux in the 2nd century BCE, which is really taking it way back. He calls the game apodidraskinda and describes it as something nearly identical to today's version of hide-and-seek.
Throughout the history of the childhood game Hide-and-Seek, with its roots believed to date back to ancient Greece [and probably beyond], there has never been a hider who didn’t know they were hiding. After all, the game often requires participants to squeeze into uncomfortable spaces and hold their breath when the seeker gets too close.
Likewise, living in denial of God’s existence takes considerable effort. For example, it is a daunting challenge to avoid the implications of an exquisitely choreographed and infinitely complex universe. Without the hand of God, how could everything materialize from a void of nothingness? And even if that could be explained, how did interdependent layers of complexity and design emerge from simplicity? And even if sense could be made of that, how did life then burst forth from the barren womb of lifeless matter?
Given the contortions required to explain the universe without appealing to a Creator, it’s safe to say that, beneath all the bother, there has never been a hider who didn’t know they were hiding from God.
This includes the eminent evolutionary biologist and professional God-dodger, Richard Dawkins, who provocatively declared, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” Dawkins candidly acknowledged that living organisms “overwhelmingly impress us with the appearance of design, as if by a master watchmaker.”
Yet, in a plot twist rivaling an M. Night Shyamalan movie, Dawkins asserts that the breathtaking design we observe in the cosmos isn’t real! This baffling conclusion is based on his contention that God isn’t real either. As the logic goes, if there is no God, then we can’t attribute purpose or intent to anything that we observe in nature.
Naturalists like Dawkins argue that the cosmos only appears to be a masterpiece of design. Thus, it’s not the facts of a well-designed universe that they seek to avoid as much as the Grand Architect to whom those facts point.
Despite the appearance of a well-designed universe, we are asked to believe that the cosmos came about without conscious guidance. In other words, the universe is sending mixed messages.
But let's be real—the only telltale sign a Grand Designer would leave is, well, the appearance of design! To dismiss the idea of a Designer, in the face of the very proof one would expect to find, shows that even the most convincing evidence can be brushed aside when it doesn't fit a predetermined narrative. Even evidence acknowledged as “overwhelming” is inexplicably dismissed.
To avoid replicating this mistake, we must be willing to scrutinize our presuppositions as rigorously as we examine our facts. Otherwise, our assumptions take the driver’s seat, relegating the facts to passenger status.
"For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20, ESV).
"By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible" (Hebrews 11:3, ESV).
"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him" (Colossians 1:16, ESV).
Old Testament Martial Arts
In a really insightful Facebook Reel, Bible teacher Mike Winger evokes memories of the famous "wax on, wax off" scenes from the 80s cult classic movie The Karate Kid to help illustrate how the development and study of the Old Testament helps prepare us in understanding the New.
When Mr. Miyagi asked Daniel-son to wax on and wax off and to paint the fence he makes him do it in a specific way, right? You can’t just wax on, wax off. No, no. You have to do it like this [Miyagi shows Daniel-son the exact motion]. … Then one day he just flips out, and ahhh, I hate this, this is the dumbest thing … ta da … Mr. Miyagi just starts attacking him. And so Daniel-son responds, doing his what? Wax on, wax off! And all of a sudden he realizes, like, oh, these are like blocks and stuff, like I’m, I learned how to fight karate!
But I think that what we have to do is look at the Old Testament, as our first time through it, as … like you’re just learning how to, like, paint the fence, wax on, wax off. And you may not fully get the reasoning of all that yet, but you get it in you so that [when] you come to the New Testament you can just explode with understanding of both the New and the Old.
Click here to watch the clip
He conclues,
Think about it this way. If there had been no Old Testament, no Passover, no prophecies, [and] Jesus shows up, dies on the cross … Nobody gets it! There needed to be this period of revelation to prepare people for Jesus Christ, to make sense of who He was.
"For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me" (John 5:46, ESV).
"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, ESV).