F4S: My blind friends are killing me with blind jokes.

Monday, June 30, 2008

My blind friends are killing me with blind jokes.







I've only seen a couple fierce seeing-eye-dog fights break out in Dallas this week. There are over 2500 blind people in town right now. Joe (in the blue shirt, with the big smile ..without the hat on) is back in the Big D from Columbia in South Carolina. He really looks forward to this trip, so he can see all his old blind friends. He's my pal and he just loves it here. Yup, he returns to visit us annually ..even though it's summer time, when it's so hot out.

Immediately upon seeing him, he set forth a scenario to me saying: "Hilary, Obama, and McCain were all floating in a boat together, Kurt, but the boat sank!

Q: Kurt, guess who got saved?… He asked me.

A: ...The United States!" said Joe.

He had other "blind jokes" for me as well--lots of them (because ..after all, he is blind and loves to laugh at the inequities of life).

Man, I never knew there was so many jokes like that!

Joe had several true stories to relate to me of funny things that his blind friends (and he himself) have done, as well. He told me about one friend of his here--a person who actually went too far in the round revolving door to exit the building for some fresh outside air ....only to unwittingly reenter the building. The man returned to report to Joe, "Bummer it's the same temperature outside as it is inside" (but he actually remained indoors merely thinking he was testing the outside temperature). Joe has a serious side too tough. People don't know that he is a pretty successful businessman who owns more than one business where he lives. He also runs a home (it's one of his homes that he moved out of) that is now being utilized for addicts seeking to overcome they're sin-habits. He said that he has a lot of help with it from friends and workers from his church.

But his new passion of 2008 is to build an apartment complex where he can live and freely house some furlowing Christian missionaries when they are home visiting their churches in the States.


It's sad that one day at the dentist's office recently, (with Joe's new dentist) this doctor asked a relative who was accompanying Joe that day, if Joe was "retarded." Joe said, "Kurt, I hadn't even said anything smart or dumb to give this guy this idea."


Ouch! Some doctors can act so ignorant. They need to go back to school to learn some more... a different subject (subj: How not to shoot your own practice in the foot).

John (in the red polo shirt above) likes to hangout as if there is no tomorrow too. He and his friends feel totally free to simply take time for others instead of for technology etc. Sure they all love to surf the web, hear emails (all audio-wise with their cell phones) and talk to each other a lot. They feel too blessed to be stressed. John said, I don't really need anything from anybody, I just "enjoy listening and being here with you guys, because it's more interesting than being other places."

Ms. Enin (the African American lady in the light blue coat above) is also our friend. She is a very sweet Christian from Manhatan in New York. She's got street savy too. Her dog's name is "Lilly," but she never tells any downtown people in New York her dog's name when they ask her, because people then distract the dog from her important work of getting Enin around the city.

Some of these wonderful people have multiple health challenges and can only eat certain types of food. I met a 20 year man who was not overweight, who had no legs, and another who had diabetes on top of his lack of sight. Man, seeing them again and what they all go through each day, just to get around and get things done--it gives me renewed feelings of gratefulness for my own sight, my health and also for all my blind friends (new and old). Many were very happy people and would say Hallelujah out loud for the simplest things. And it makes a person think about vision, because there is a blindness that is worse than physical blindness that many other people don’t realize they have.

Jesus once told Nick at night (Nicodemus)--a spiritually blind Jewish teacher who didn’t even know that he was in such a state: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God" (Jn. 3:3).

You remember how the Apostle Paul prayed to the Lord about the Christians in Ephesus--he didn't bring up their physical needs. Instead he requested of God that they would be able to see (though they still had functioning eyeballs in their heads). He knew that if God opened the eyes of their understanding, they would also be able to clearly understand the Lord’s truth as well (v. 1:18).

Paul earnestly asked God to give the Ephesian believers His heavenly type of wisdom and also spiritual discernment in some areas regarding: 1.) The hope to which they had been called, 2.) The riches of their spiritual inheritance, and 3.) The supernatural resurrection power that was to be theirs in Christ Jesus—yes that they were to experience daily firsthand as they lived above the circumstances of life (vv.18-20).

Hey those things are WAY SIGNIFICANT too! A platinum visa card won’t ever get you those things. Think about it, because the better we can see with the eyes of the Spirit (and I don't mean in some unbiblical charismaniac type of way) …into the invisible world around us, the better we will be able to see and act in the visible world around us.

You and I certainly want to be a good witness for Christ don't we. Then we’ve got to see things the way they really are, and not be dim about how to deal with these things in the right way. We must be practical and spiritually mature, understanding the hope that we posses—that living hope of life everlasting... that ability to grasp a hold of what our real wealth in Jesus is all about. That’s what it will take to enable us to keep a proper perspective of things on this sin-sick planet. That’s what will help us not to become hyper-focused on all the temporal, worthless stuff that the world has to offer.

Some people are totally blind and others (Christians) might have blind-spots due to neglect. Yes, they say that some real Christians and pastors can have some! I believe it. And when saints have blind-spots spiritually, they won't walk right. They will eventually stumble or fall. We don't want that to happen ever, because blindspots will ill-affect their representation of the Lord to others who need to know Jesus.

Man, I hope I don’t have any!

In truth, after meeting Christ in ’77, He removed so much that was hindering me, but now I want to walk right, represent Him properly and see a lot more!

Open our eyes Lord, to see the invisible things that cannot be observed with the naked eye. We want to see more with eyes of the heart to riches beyond the sky. I long to stay focused on You, so your love I will never deny! kVs

“As it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:10, nkjv).

May I ask you: Can you ...or would you like to ..see clearly? Be born anew and neglect not so great a salvation in Jesus!