Back to Work and John 9

Well as hard as it is for me to believe, I'm back to work! Thanks to our Air Traffic Manager's (ATM) diligence in calling the Flight Surgeon (sounds like he operates while in an airplane) I was reinstated as a medically qualified controller today. I had to recertify on all positions since I'd been off work for more than a month. Fortunately after more than 16 years (16 years, 7 months, 4 days leaving just 3 years, 4 months and 27 days to be eligible for retirement!) I still remembered how to talk to planes and am now back on the schedule.

(Bilbo I hope you feel better about flying now.)

John 9

John 9 tells another story of Jesus healing on the Sabbath. There are a couple of things that I like in this story. I like when Jesus was asked who sinned that the man is blind. It turns out that not every bad thing that happens to us is a judgment from God. In this case, Jesus said this was to glorify God.

Something important I've learned:

Some lessons are so simple that we tend to overlook them. In verse 24, the leaders criticize Jesus as a sinner. The man responds by simply saying, "...I was blind but now I see!"

The verse I liked best:

Verse 27 really got the leaders that had been questioning the healed man. I'm sure that he must have thought that their continued interest in the healing was very positive in nature. And so... He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"

A question to consider:

The final verses of the chapter say, The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.

Have you ever felt so self-righteous or been so sure of yourself that you were unwilling to listen to another point of view? Has your sight (knowledge) ever been more of a hindrance than a help?

John