In Iowa, it is legal for a blind person to carry a gun.

Just…let that soak in for a moment.

Now, I’m a big supporter of the Second Amendment, and I’m certainly against discrimination based on physical disabilities, but…seriously?  A blind person with a gun?  Immense power in the hands of one who has no means of directing it accurately or effectively could have significant and terrifying ramifications.

I’m sure there’s a political aspect to this, but we won’t go there today.

Vision has been a topic of special concern to me lately.  I told you about having to find a new optometrist.  He gave me three different prescriptions for contacts; blind, blinder, and blindest.  One lens lets me read comfortably, but the world beyond fifty feet or so looks a little like Marshmallow Land.  The second lens gives me Steve Austin (astronaut, a man barely alive…please tell me you know that reference) vision at distances usually reserved for orbiting satellite telescopes, but I can’t read the ingredients on my cereal box.

Perhaps not such a bad thing.

The third lens sits between the other two.  Pretty good across the board; not excellent anywhere.  I have to choose which kind of vision I want.

The theater bug has gotten my family again.  (Stay with me…there’s a connection here.)  This time, my son and I are treading the boards in Daniel, a new show based on the biblical book and character.  There is a theme that runs through this show.  It has to do with vision, and blindness, and choice.

Daniel is a prophet, literally a seer.  He gets visions in which God shows him what will happen in the world.  Pretty cool gift…but it comes with a price.  Daniel grieves the fact that most of his people, and certainly those in power, are blind to the truth of God.  He watches helplessly as king after king chooses to ignore the truth, leading the people into darkness and danger.  Lyrics from the show spell this out for us

The king who chooses blindness will bind us all…

Those who would walk in darkness shut out the light…

None so blind as those who refuse to see…

And so we stumble through the night as a blind man leads the blind.

Notice the choice here?  The people, from commoner to king, choose blindness.  But why?  Why on Earth would anyone willingly choose blindness?

In a word…power.

Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t want to admit that there is anyone with power over him, anyone to whom he should bend the knee.  So he observes the miracles, even acknowledges them as the work of a mighty god, but refuses to see the big picture, that this God is the one who gave him the power he has, and to whom he owes allegiance.  Nebuchadnezzar belongs to the, “I am master of my fate; I am captain of my soul” crowd.

Yeah, how’s that working for you, Neb?

Enough about Nebuchadnezzar for now.  Here’s a more important question:  Why do you choose to be blind?

Oh don’t look at me like that.

Daniel wasn’t magic.  He didn’t have special powers.  The secret to Daniel’s amazingosity was that he wanted to see.  Wherever it led, whatever it cost, he wanted the truth.  In the Bible, God tells Daniel, “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.” That attitude put Daniel in a place where he was capable of perceiving what God had to show him.

So, again I’ll ask:  Why do you choose to be blind?  What power are you trying to hold on to?  What are you afraid God might show you?  Nebuchadnezzar did not want to see that he was vulnerable.  That didn’t change the fact that he was.  Reality is not going to be determined by whether or not you—or I—choose to perceive it.

To those who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32