I’ve always been fascinated by the story of Bartimaeus. I’ll admit that part of it comes from realizing that he was probably called Blind Bart, and that has an old western feel to it, which makes the story even cooler to me.

But the crowd is what always gets me. The crowd that ignored Bart every day as he sat begging. The crowd that tried to silence him when he called out to Jesus. It was that same crowd who suddenly appeared to be on his side the minute Jesus acknowledged him.

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” (Mark‬ ‭10:49‬ ‭NIV, emphasis mine)

Of course, this same crowd didn’t help him up. They just cheered him on. Fans are like that. They appear to be on our side when our side is winning, or in this case, noticed by Jesus. But our faith must never be in fans because they can’t ultimately give us what we need. Our sight — our vision — has to come from the Lord.

He gave vision to Blind Bart, and He’ll give it to you and me, too. Just don’t get distracted by the cheering or the jeering fans.

It seems like every time I scroll through a social media feed, I find common themes in what believers are posting about.

We post about what’s wrong with the world.

We post about what’s wrong with the church.

We post about what’s wrong with other believers.

We post about what’s wrong with what other believers believe.

Notice the trend?

It shouldn’t be surprising that the church is known more for what we’re against than for what we’re for. It’s what we highlight most of the time.

But what if we highlighted what’s right? What if…

We posted about what’s right with the world?

We posted about what’s right with the church?

We posted about what’s right with other believers?

We posted about what’s right with what other believers believe?

Usually, by the end of my feed scrolling, the simple act of highlighting what’s right seems like a pipe dream. But I’m going to keep dreaming anyway. If you join me, maybe together we can change what people think the church is about.

Why, yes, that is a strange title, but hang with me and I think it will begin to make sense. Probably, painful sense.

Jesus told a parable in Luke 14 about a man who decided to hold a great banquet and sent out invitations to all those he wanted to attend. In order to help connect the dots of that strange title and this parable, let’s agree that attending a banquet with amazing food that someone else paid for could easily be considered a blessing. (Can I get an amen from all the foodies reading this??)

Let’s pick the story up and see how the blessing played out.

At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.” Another said, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.” Still another said, “I just got married, so I can’t come.” ‭‭(Luke‬ ‭14:16-20‬ ‭NIV, emphasis mine)

They all began to make excuses, and on the surface, they seemed like legitimate ones. There was a new piece of property, a new mode of transportation, and a new relationship. None of those are bad, and yet all of those can lead us to the one thing that can stop the blessings of God.

Busyness.

Corrie ten Boom once said, “If the devil can’t make us bad, he will make us busy.” And that state of constantly having a great deal to do is so often the very thing that keeps us from saying yes to the things that God is inviting us to enjoy.

The sad irony of this parable is that the excuses didn’t even make sense. No one buys a piece of property without seeing it first. No one buys a car without test-driving it first. And married people still eat! That’s the insidious danger of busyness: often it doesn’t steal our time as much as it steals our hearts.

They all could have made the banquet if they had wanted to, and I think that’s why the man throwing the party got mad when he heard the excuses. He knew what we all know: we make ourselves available to whatever has our affections. A house, a car, a job, a relationship, a King.

The point isn’t that we can only have Jesus or those other things, but that our hearts must be available to Him first, or else other things can begin to crowd out our availability for Him.

I love the song, “Available,” by Elevation Worship. I love it for its simplicity and its clear challenge for us to say yes to the Father before and above our yes to anything else. Yes always leads us to the blessing of God, so let me close this writing with the simple chorus from that song that calls all of us to drop the excuses — even the good ones — and simply say, “I am available.”

I hear You call
I am available
I say yes Lord
I am available