Friday, November 01, 2013
A Cure For Blindness
At
times it may seem like the world has gone mad and doesn't even know it. Headlines and popular entertainment venues
read like a horror story. Yet, when someone voices concern, they are often
considered prudish or hateful. How is it
that mankind can engage in rampant immorality and celebrate it as a "new
normal"? There appears to be an
epidemic of spiritual blindness.
Here
is an extreme example that makes my point. In 1990 serial killer and child
molester, Westley Alan Dodd, said this in open court: "I must be executed
before I have an opportunity to escape or kill someone within the prison. If I
do escape, I promise you I will kill prison guards if I have to and rape and
enjoy every minute of it." He went on to say that if he ever escaped from
jail, he would immediately go back to "killing and raping kids." How does someone become that cruel and hard? What causes their blindness, and what is the
cure?
The
Bible analyzes the problem like this: "Sin whispers to the wicked, deep
within their hearts. They have no fear of God at all. In their blind conceit, they cannot see how
wicked they really are. Everything they
say is crooked and deceitful. They refuse to act wisely or do good. They lie awake at night, hatching sinful
plots. Their actions are never good. They make no attempt to turn from evil."
(Psalm 26:1-4 NLT)
The
root problem is that they are conceited and have no fear of God. That is, they
have no awe or respect for God. They are
blind to God's greatness and unaware of their weakness and foolishness. But their blindness is curable.
The
same Psalm describes the cure: "Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as
the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is
like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people
and animals alike, O LORD. How precious
is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your
wings." (Psalms 36:5-7 NLT) Please
notice that God is so loving and kind, he even loves animals. But people have such a special place in his
heart that he came and died for them. He
came to love mankind and to cure his spiritual blindness. The cure for this blindness
is God's love, when man responds to it in faith. Eyes are opened when people choose to believe
in a loving God, in the midst of a broken world.
If
we are to believe his testimony, Westley eventually discovered that love. In 1993 shortly before he was executed Dodd
said this: "I was wrong. I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no
peace. There is hope. There is peace. I found both in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord, and you will find
peace.” Westley may been spiritually
blind for most of his life, but if he really did come to know God, his eyes
were opened for eternity. There is a
cure for this kind of blindness and it starts when someone begins to humbly
seek God and open their heart to his amazing love.
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