“I Want to See.” 

              —Mark 10:51

“I want to see.”  It’s the prayer of the blind man in today’s gospel, and it’s the prayer of all of us growing in the spiritual life.  We want to see.  We desire insight.
 
So even though this passage is about a very real miracle in the life of Bartimaeus, I can’t help but also think it’s a spiritual metaphor for a life of prayer.  That’s because in many ways, our prayer is a desire to see what we can only hope for and desperately want—restored health, peace, justice, wholeness, success, acceptance or even in some ways a desire to be noticed by God; that he actually cares about our life.
 
We call out to Jesus, “have compassion for me; have pity on me.”  We ask for help. 
 
What we learn from Bartemaeus is that prayer takes persistence.  Of course, Jesus tells us that, too.  (See Luke 11:5-8 and Luke 18:1-8 for just a couple of examples.)  The blind man was discouraged by the crowd and told to give it up and leave Jesus alone.  But, the blind man had faith, and it made him call out to Jesus (i.e., pray) even more.  He didn’t give in to the discouragers.  Instead, when Jesus told the people to let Bartimaeus come to him, the encouragers were the first to tell him, “Take courage, get up” and go to Jesus.  
 
We find that in prayer, too.  We have the people who discourage us and tell us why bother to pray; it’s a waste of time.  But then we have other voices in our life who encourage us to follow our heart, to keep the faith and keep praying.
 
The encouragers, in the end, are all around us.  It’s the people praying in the pews with us—praying for us and with us.  The encouragers are found in the community of faith that lifts us up on a Sunday morning, or weekday morning, or any day in between.
 
In a world of discouragers, we need encouragers in our life.  They help us see what our heart sees: A God who cares.

We’re Getting Close! 2020 Vision Capital Campaign Update
Also see page 7 for more information.
 

Thank you to the kind and anonymous parishioner who gave us a chance at the Mega Million Lottery.    We didn’t hit the jackpot, but it gave us hope.  Thank you for the random act of kindness!

Speaking of encouragement, we are very blessed. During our pledge weekend and through last weekend, we moved the thermometer up to over $2.1 million.  We’re now about 11% away from our $2.4 million goal!
 
We’re doing it together to build up our community and to accomplish what’s required of us as we head into the 2020s. 
 
Thank you everyone for considering making a pledge, and for those who have gotten us this far…thank you for your generosity.  Faith in God, and faith in each other can move mountains.
 
May the God, who hears the cry of those in need, bring us continued blessing,