Running the Race Blind

One night at youth group—oh, about twenty years ago—the youth pastor announced a race. We needed a partner for this race, and one of us needed to be blindfolded.

Foolishly, I volunteered to be the blindfolded one. Then the youth pastor shouted, “Go!”

It was more like a game of tug-o-war than a race. My  partner kept trying to race ahead while I kept pulling back. I couldn’t see anything, and I was afraid of stepping into a hole or tripping over an object. I was afraid of getting hurt.

My partner kept yelling, “This way! Follow me. Come on! Trust me.”

But I didn’t want to. I wanted to move slowly. I wanted to trust my own self-protective instincts. I wanted to crawl and feel my way across the finish line.

It was total chaos as all the seeing partners shouted similar pleas to their blind companions. I regretted volunteering for the blindfold. I wished I were the seeing partner instead. Surely, their job was easier than this nonsense of blindly following along!

The youth pastor had a point to make.

With our own eyes and ears and understanding, we prefer to do the leading, rather than the following—rather than the trusting.

In a similar way, our relationship to God is kind of like holding the hand of a seeing Partner. God sees infinitely more than we ever could.

Certain trials resemble that same dark night. Blindfolded. And running a race we didn’t choose for ourselves.

Sometimes it’s tempting to just plop down, and perhaps sulk a while. But there is another choice—a choice to lean not on our own understanding, but to trust the One who can faithfully lead us.

Of course, this is a whole lot easier said than done. But He really is Someone we can trust.

Have you ever ran a race blindfolded?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Today, I’m joining Lisa-Jo, taking 5 minutes to write about “trust.”