It's a beautiful day! Can you see it?

Last Sunday we filled out the National Church Life Survey as a community.  The NCLS is the census of the Australian church taken every four years.  I had some interesting responses to the survey during the week. Several people reported they found the survey challenged them to reassess their priorities and faith.  One person said he found the questions about where the Lordship of Jesus fitted in his life especially challenging.  Another said they found the questions implying the necessity of change confronting.  The survey asked several questions about trying new things, being outwardly focused and intentionally welcoming, on a personal level, which made them think.  Another reported that they found it ironic how in their discussions after the survey there was a determination that life was good and nothing needed to change……ever…..so help me God! We are a mixed bag of children aren’t we? For some reason this made me think of a story I heard recently that made me think. The story is about a sad, isolated, blind man.  The blind man sat at a particular spot on a city street with his cap placed on the ground begging.  There was a small hand written sign near the cap that read, “I am blind and cannot see can you help me?” Most people ignored the blind man, rushing past in their busy, distracted funk.  One day a person stopped in front of the blind man and he could tell it was a woman.  The woman leant over and, he could hear, picked up his sign.  What was she doing?  Couldn’t she tell he was at a disadvantage?  Who would take advantage of a vulnerable blind person like him? As the blind man stretched his hearing he could tell the woman was changing the wording on his sign and she bent over, not saying a word, and replaced it from where she had taken it.  Almost immediately money started to clank into his hat.  What had she written that suddenly so much money was voluntarily given by so many people who had ignored him before? Days passed and the blind man was seated in one of his usual places when he sensed someone standing in front of him.  It was a woman.  It was THE woman.  “Stop!”, he said, “You changed my sign and with it my luck has changed as well.  Please tell me, what did you write?”  She said, “I wrote, ‘I am blind and I know it is a beautiful day and I just cannot see it’”. Malcolm