Bartemaus No 2!
You might have read my post a little while ago called ‘Bartemaus’ If you haven’t, you might want to before you read this. It will make more sense. In that post I talked about how Bartemaus did not care he had BEEN blind, he only cared he could now see. He left the past where it belonged, behind him. And after meeting Jesus, he never had anymore questions of ‘why’ he had been born blind. He did not care. All he cared about was that Jesus had SEEN him, and given him his sight. So what else is there to learn about Bart? A lot! He did a few things hardly any of those Jesus healed did. 1. He said Thankyou. 2. He believed Jesus was the son of God. 3. He worshipped Him. 4. He did not care what other people thought. So many of the people Jesus healed never thanked Him. Isn’t that like our society today? How many of us take without giving? Take without thanking? Take without THINKING. Believing that it is our right to HAVE. We live in a culture that has so much. We take most of it for granted. Good food, warm homes, nice clothes. Good education, yes I know you can argue the point on that one….. But we have. And it has not made us happier. We have so many devices, iPads, iPhones, headphones, Xbox, smart TV, SO many ways of communicating. And yet we are alone. Five people in a house, sitting together. All on their phones. Engaged elsewhere. We miss the present because we are scrolling down our phone. We don’t notice the sunsets. The birds crying in the air, the poppies red against the green meadows, we SEE nothing else but our own personal little device. And if we don’t have it? CALAMITY! No phone? No computer? Ahhhhh! And we get angry and frustrated. We don’t stop fuming until it’s fixed. But more than than that, we have a hissy fit UNTIL it’s fixed. ‘I can’t do without it!’ ‘How am I going to sort that out NOW?”For GODs sake!!!’ ‘That’s ALL I need!’ And we act like three year olds. Not grateful to HAVE a phone, but angry that for a few days we haven’t! In some ways, although we have all this technology, we are still as we were in the days of Bartemaus. Most of us get what we want, and without a backward glance go off. We don’t care about the person who fixed it. A quick ‘thanks,’ pennies on the counter and off. Do we even remember what the person looked like, if they were to cross our path, months later? The one who mended our device, just in case your wondering…….if you weren’t, well done…… In fact it’s worse. If the person sorting out our device is late, or it takes more time, we get angry and impatient. ‘I’m busy! I need it NOW!’ ‘What do you expect me to do, without my phone?!’ ‘That’s NOT good enough! You SAID Friday! It’s now Monday!’ And on we go. Moaning. Ranting. Complaining. And if it goes like that, the only Thankyou the person is lightly to get is a withering look and a VERY sarcastic Thankyou! Which actually can be interpreted as ‘NO Thankyou, you useless swine. I NEEDED my phone you look TOO long, and if I could I’d kick your arse to Glasgow!’ Unless you lived in a Glasgow. In which case it would be somewhere else….. So we might remember that person a tad longer…..just because they had pissed us off. But we most certainly would NOT be thankful. Neither would we go back! So we still think somebody else should get us out of our shit asap. And they don’t need thanking! What do they think we pay them FOR? Most of the people Jesus healed were like that. They didn’t care that the shops had shut, that Jesus hadn’t eaten, or that He was tired or busy. They hunted Him down and took what He offered. That is, they took the parts they wanted. Which were what they thought were the BEST, indeed only, ones. Things THEY wanted. Healing. Being made PHYSICALLY better. And that’s where it stopped, Thankyou very much….except they didn’t say that…..they just walked off.
At one point Jesus healed ten, TEN, lepers in one go. How many came back? How many said Thankyou? One. I mean come on. You’ve just been covered in a skin disease, where you had absolutely NO contact with anybody else AT ALL. You had to shout ‘UNCLEAN’ when ever anybody came anywhere near you! Your nose would drop off. Your fingers and toes. You’d smell of decay. A Job? Well, Teresa May could probably make you find one……no food, unless you begged. People might throw the odd copper at your head, cos they would never, ever come near you. You were outcast. Totally. No church going. No family near. No nothing. So you’d think that if you’d been healed of that, you’d at least say Thankyou. Nope. Just one. That’s one of the reasons Jesus said about people not understanding His miracles. Yes, He wanted people well. But He wanted more. He wanted them to SEE Him, for who He was! Master Healer. Son of God. But most were not interested. They just wanted black label day thanks. 24 hour flash sale! Jesus did His miracles, not just to make people well physically, but to make them well SPIRITUALLY. If they wanted it. But most didn’t. They did not see as far as their own nose…..if they still had one……if not then their ears…..don’t even go there……I KNOW what you were thinking…..what if they had no ears….. Jesus does not force Himself on us. He didn’t then and He doesn’t now. Even in Eden, God never forced the issue. Of course, He knew where Adam was hiding! But He wants us to want Him! And all most of us want is the ‘Wham bam, Thankyou ma’am.’ And we are off…. We don’t want to see the miracle MAKER, only have the miracle. Only a very few wanted more. Only a few wanted the MAN behind the miracles. And those who did, KNEW, He was not just a man. God wants us to find Him. How would we feel, or do we feel, when we want to spend time with our child and they keep putting us off, so they can do their Xbox. For days on end. We might get a mumbled thanks for dinner, which is eaten so quickly it’s worrying….. but that’s it. And that is what most of us do to God. To busy. ‘Talk to the hand’…….’Maybe next week, I’m busy today’…..’Got stuff to do’…..’Talk later’……and we get angry if we feel forced to spend anytime with God, unless WE WANT too.
We only want God when WE want Him. For what He can DO for us, not for WHO He is. And most of the time we forget to say Thankyou. In fact, we think it’s our right to have it our way. I do. I want God to do what I want. But spend time with Him? You are KIDDING! I tell no lie, I clock watch. I tell Him Ill give Him 15 minutes, and I begrudge Him even those. I get bored. Close my eyes, try to be holy. Think I’ve taken all the time up, open them and it’s only been two minutes…..and I don’t WANT to spend time with the miracle Maker. I only want His miracles. How rude. What if God got pissed off? What if Jesus had? But we do! God help the person who does not say Thankyou to us! If you are anything like me, you SEETHING tell them ‘You could say THANKYOU!!!’ Bartemaus was thankful. And He wanted MORE. Not just content with seeing physically, he wanted to see spiritually. WHO was behind this miracle, that had opened his eyes? Who had thought him important enough to help. And not passed by. How many, many people over the years had passed Barty by? In a hurry, banged into him, blamed him for getting in the way, rolled their eyes when he asked for coins? Worse! Looked down on him and blamed him for his being blind? Teresa….how ’bout you love? Sounding abit similar int’ it?😂 Yet Jesus did none of those things. He FOUND him. He healed Him. And to Bart that was EVERYTHING. He wanted more! Who was this man? He was hungry! He was not afraid of the order of the day. He knew Jesus has healed him. He didn’t yet know he was the son of God, outwardly, but in his heart, he knew full well. What did he say to the Pharisees? ‘I don’t know if he is a sinner, but I do know that God listens to those who respect Him!’ He KNEW God had heard the man Jesus, when He asked Him to heal His eyes. So when Jesus came and found him and said ‘Do you know who the son of man is?’ He said ‘Tell me, Lord, that I may believe in Him.’ And Jesus said, ‘It is I, who am talking with you now.’ Bartemaus fell on his knees and said ‘I believe Lord.’ He had found the miracle MAKER. And that was what he wanted. To show gratitude for the man who had healed him. To fall at His feet in worship and thankfulness.
I can imagine for the rest of his life Bartemaus followed Jesus. And was forever grateful. Because thankfulness is an attitude of the heart. It’s a way of living. Our culture does not teach it. It teaches us to take. Not to take TIME to find the person and say Thankyou. I have a hard heart. I can forget to say Thankyou. Even worse, I get angry if I think God doesn’t help quick enough….and if I think He is going to say no…..😡😡😡😡😡He really gets it. Tempers, stamping, cursing, the works. But I also know the importance of being thankful. Being thankful is different, VERY different from a quick, ‘thanks’ It’s when we stop. Stop. And take the TIME to say Thankyou, we feel a quietness in ourselves. Our spirit feels different. Mine does. It stops. No hurry. No rush. And as I say it, carefully, I see more and more things to say Thankyou for. When we really connect with a Thankyou to God, we find what Bartemaus did. He BELIEVED. He worshipped. Saying and BEING Thankyou brings us BEYOND what we have just had, and takes us to the Person God is. We draw close to Him. We want HIM, not for what He has given, but for WHO He is. It quiets our soul. And it helps us see who really IS our saviour, healer and redeemer. Who truly is the lover of our soul. Saying Thankyou is not a one off event. It’s a lifetime event. A way of living. Sorry, digression, actually, it’s NOT! Haha! I love it when a plan comes together….who said that?…The A team, wasn’t, it?….sorry, that bit WAS a digression…..I love Scrooge, have multiple different versions. The one that came to my mind just now was The Muppets Christmas Carol. When Michael Caine, who plays Scrooge, had seen the spirits of Christmas and learned to LIVE a Thankyou for what he SEES he has. He sings,
‘With a thankful heart, and with endless joy, with a growing family, every girl and boy, will be nephew and niece to me, bringing love joy and peace to me, and Everyday will start, with a grateful prayer and a thankful heart’ (Thankyou Muppets Christmas Carol, for your words here!) Do you SEE that? It’s FANTASTIC! Being thankful had allowed Scrooge to SEE that being thankful gave him FAMILY! That being grateful made life BIGGER. And He understood that being thankful is the KEY to living! That a thankful heart is an alive, pulsating, vibrating one! That Thankyou brings MORE. For him more than he ever dreamed. A relationship with his nephew, a new partner, another family, Bob Cratchets, and EVERYONE he spoke to saw the change in him! He grew BIGGER. He stopped being, small minded, greedy and petty, and started LIVING! When we live a life of Thankyou, EVERYTHING changes! It does not mean we become millionaires. It means we stop living negatively. We stop looking inward and down ward, and start looking UP ward. And by looking UP we see the source of the miracles! We SEE the Miracle Maker! Do you know, I think heaven stops when we praise God in thankfulness. I can imagine lights pulsating around the throne of God, the Glory of His Being, radiant. Being lit up by our thankfulness. Scrooge and Bartemaus saw how precious life was because they had learnt to be thankful. To be grateful. To know there was more than a one off thing. To realise it was an everyday, lifetime event. Every single day….As the song continues….’Stop and look around you, the glory that you see, is born each day, don’t let it slip away, how precious life can be……'(‘gain, Thankyou Muppets! Great words, great words!) we are BLIND to life, because we don’t open our eyes! We take it for granted, but don’t even notice it!
Scrooge had been WOKEN UP! His heart was now wide awake! He could see life each day because he now had a THANKFUL heart! He was now ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR and LIVING a Thankyou! How many of us are asleep? Lost in the troubles of the world. Not praising God? Forgetting too, too tired? Unhappy and disconnected? We need to feed our spirit everyday. And we do this by having a thankful heart. We live a LIFE of thanks! It a habit we must practise. King David, when troubles hit, he took time out and he ‘strengthened himself in the Lord (See book of Samuel or Kings in the bible) he KNEW the VITALNESS yup, new word…..Good ain’t it?, of thanks! It is VITAL to our life, especially in these times! The more thankful you are the more you SEE! The more you bring Glory to God. Because the more you see, the more you want to say Thankyou! Life is so precious, so fragile. We hold it with such contempt. But it is SO PRECIOUS. Every tiny thing. A blade of grass. Have you looked at one lately? A ladybird? It’s beautiful! And the more we LIVE Thankyou, the more we draw people to us. They hunger for what we have! A thankful spirit is an illuminated spirit! It is SO attractive! That is why God is SO irresistible! We realise we are family, and not just family, HIS family! and it MATTERS. In fact, that’s ALL that matters. Because when you have the MAKER you have EVERYTHING! And everything you need has to come from that place. A thankful heart. That is when we start truly living. So I want to learn from Barty. I want to learn to say Thankyou. And to live it.