Blindfold Obstacle

a group of people, including yourself, stand in a semi-circle listening to directions. the instructions are given and you all take the spots. the color that you once saw drowned out by the blindfold tied around your eyes. You stand on a small platform big enough for your feet to be standing on and that's it. "Alright begin!" a single voice resounds then within a matter of seconds your ears are bombarded with a multitude of voices telling you what step to take next. there is an obstacle course that you are suppose finish without touching the ground,everyone else around is to give you directions, and there is one person in the middle on the obstacle course who once you meet you can grab their hand and they can guide you with their hand and voice but until then they can only vocally direct you. you decipher a few directions that seem to be coming from a couple of different people, your friends, and choose to follow them. first step, complete. so you listen again...a resounding group of voices again. so you take the step again. second step complete. again...listen, go. left foot out with a slight height increase...your foot misses completely and you fall to the grassy ground. unable to remove the blindfold the leaders of the obstacle come and help you up, taking you back to the beginning. as you are led back you wonder what went wrong? why would they led me in a wrong direction? Again you try the course, fail. Again fail. what is going on? at this point so fed up with the blindfold and just want to give up on this stupid obstacle course. And to your fortune this time the leaders remove the blind fold but put on special goggles that won't allow you to look down. You are able to look at those around you and the person in front of you. Your eyes slowly adjust to the light to see that everyone on the sides are blindfolded too. They had a chance to look through the obstacle course but then they were all blindfold. the only person who isn't is the person in the middle. this time you try hard to to focus on the person in the middle but you can't hear them everyone else is too loud. So you try on your own. it worked. alright again. fail. Again and again you try listening to others trying yourself but never being able to accomplish the task. You wearily step up onto the small platform once again. people start barking orders again...you yell above everyone else and ask them to stop talking. The middle person's voice comes clear and you step by step still a little unsteady go father and farther until you reach them. their hand now guide yours allow with their reaffirming voice and within moments you finishing the obstacle course.

This past week there was one these obstacle courses that I've done before at high school and leadership building retreats were brought to my mind, but not in that task so much as the metaphor to life. So often we are like the blindfolded person aimlessly wandering trying to follow the right path. We turn to friends, to family, to people we don't know, to things, but we miss the one person who knows and sees the path that is before us. And all we need to do is listening and lift our eyes to that one being, Jesus Christ.

"If only we took the time to turn our eyes and hearts away from this world, even from the faces of family and friends that surround us, the joys that attract us and distract us, and fix them steadfastly on the face of Jesus, He would manifest himself to our hearts and we would be filled with the consciousness that He is with us."
Absolute Surrender by, Andrew Murray


Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2