From the Vicar
Its hard to ask for help.
Often there’s a shame or a stigma attached to it. Perhaps, we think, it shows weakness because we haven’t managed to fix things ourselves. Or we think that others seem to have everything under control so there must be something wrong with me. And so, too often, we silently struggle alone.
Or perhaps we stay silent because we don’t believe that anything or anyone can fix us. Perhaps we’ve sought help in the past, but nothing has come of it, and so we settle into a despondent status quo. Or maybe you simply feel too broken, believing the all the king’s horses and all the king’s men haven’t got a hope of putting this mess back together again.
The story of Bartimaeus in this morning’s gospel is a refreshing middle-finger to this kind of thinking. When word gets to the beggar that a healer is in town, he shouts out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” He’s making a scene, and others try to shush him, to keep him at the back of the crowd. Bartimaeus wont have a bar of it. He shouts ever louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
It takes courage to confront our blindness, and it takes another level of courage to trust someone else to help. It is so easy to listen to that interior voice telling us not to cause a fuss, and not to share our vulnerabilities. I’ve been reflecting on this because I’ve been so proud of some recent examples of friends, colleagues, and parishioners who have had the boldness to share their pain, and to seek professional help for it. They have lived out the story of Bartimaeus, and shown deep faith. May we never cease in being a community to seeks support, and celebrate with others who do.
Faith Like Bartimaeus by Treena Davis
To keep calling out
When the enemy of faith
Says to, “shut up”
To throw off the safety
Of the known
And run headlong
Blindly
Into the unknown
And ask Him for sight.
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