The way my husband, Phil, tells the story, he and Timmy were getting ready to cross the parking lot to the doors of Wal-Mart. Phil reminded Timmy to stop and look both ways for oncoming traffic, which Timmy did. “No cars!” Timmy announced, then began running full steam ahead.
A short time later, he smacked up against the brick wall of the store, stumbled back, and fell to the ground. “I’m okay,” Timmy said, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. “I just couldn’t see where I was going.”
My husband could think of only one possible reason why that might be the case. “Were you running with your eyes closed?” he asked.
“Yep!” Timmy said cheerfully, turning and heading for the entrance.
Somehow, this didn’t surprise me at all. It sounds exactly like something Timmy would do. Vintage Timmy, if you will. And it was funny (since he didn’t get hurt).
What’s not so funny, however, is when you and I do the same thing and run blind when we should have our eyes wide open.
Sometimes, we effectively blind ourselves because we simply don’t pay attention to what’s going on around us. Other times, like Timmy, we deliberately blind ourselves by choosing to live in denial of what’s happening or what might be about to happen. Either way, our self-imposed blindness means that we put ourselves at risk of getting badly hurt—or of hurting others.
We have to be willing to face the pain and fear of running toward a potentially painful situation and keep our eyes open. Hard? Yes. But let me share with you one of my favorite Bible verses. I hope it will encourage you to run with your eyes wide open as much as it does me.
You remember the story of David and Goliath. Everybody in Israel is afraid of Goliath because he’s way taller (and, presumably, bigger) than they are. Nobody wants to fight him because they’re afraid. Every day, Goliath comes out to taunt the armies of Israel, and nobody does anything about it. Until David shows up, that is. Here’s how the conversation goes (my paraphrase):
David: Hey! Why isn’t anybody fighting this guy?
Israelites: He’s big and scary.
David: So what? He’s taunting God Almighty! Somebody ought to do something!
Israelites: Who? Not us.
David: Then I’ll fight him!
Israelites: You? You’re a kid!
David: Well, you guys aren’t going to do it. Let me do it!
Israelites: Well, okay. But at least wear this armor.
David (putting on armor): This is too heavy. Besides, I don’t need it, anyway.
Israelites: Okay. Good luck.
So David goes out to face Goliath, picking up five smooth stones on the way. Goliath sees him coming and says (my paraphrase): “What, this pipsqueak is going to fight me? Ha!”
And David says (direct quote): “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
Then comes the awesome verse: “As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him” (emphasis mine).
Did you catch that? David was facing the scariest human being anybody had ever seen. He was facing what everybody else expected would be certain death. But he ran to meet the danger.
He ran toward danger. He didn’t run away from it. He ran toward it and trusted God to make things right.
Eyes wide open.
In David’s case, the brick wall fell, so to speak. In your case or in mine, God may choose not to remove the wall we see coming. But if we close our eyes as we run, the damage will be much worse. The only way we have a chance to minimize the impact is to keep our eyes open. Either God will show us a way to avoid the wall, or He’ll show us when and where and how to brace for impact.
And when the moment of impact comes, He’ll be there for us, just as Phil was there for Timmy. He’ll pick us up and dust us off…or cradle us close…or, if the pain was really bad and the wall was really hard, He’ll show us His face as we take our first breath in Heaven.
You see, God is always standing right next to the wall. And when we run toward it, we run toward Him, too.
Amen.
1 Samuel 17:48—As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. (NIV)