Seeing in the World

What would you do if you couldn’t fail? What mission would

you attempt or what venture would you risk? All great

questions, because they get us thinking, stretch our vision

and stir our imagination. But as great as they are, maybe

they are not the right questions to ask because we know

there will be failure. There just will.

In light of those questions we turn to our reading this

morning from Mark’s gospel. The question here to ask is,

what would you be willing to try if the attempt itself was

worth it regardless of whether or not we succeeded. This

seems to be a big part of what the reading is about. Would

you, like Bartimaeus in today’s reading shout out for healing

even though the people around you try to shush you into

silence? Could it be that Bartimaeus was so used to failure

and disappointment that he saw no reason not to at least try

one more time? Or perhaps faithfulness itself is defined by

trusting God enough to dare impossible deeds?