Had he told my friend he would come? What was his plan for the night if he did not come? How would he get to wherever he was going? The more questions I asked the more I realised I was just indulging in excuses for doing nothing.
It was easier to keep the blind man at a distance and treat him officially than to admit that as a brother he had a claim on me and I should do something to assist him. Worse, I recognised in myself the urge to humiliate him rather than to help him, to enjoy the power I had over him at that moment rather than to show compassion.
Later, as I felt ashamed of these dark forces within, I realised how comfortable it is to fall back on correct procedures. If someone is not following them it becomes an excuse for doing nothing. You should follow the proper channels. Yet we know how difficult that is. But we insist on it because it allows me to do nothing. I passed the passport office the other day with a friend and he groaned as he recalled the time wasted there following the correct procedures to obtain a passport.
As we read the gospels we realise how often Jesus is diverted from his own plans. He goes away to rest for a while with his close friends but the people guessed where they were going. So from all the towns, they hurried there on foot, arriving ahead of them, (Mark 6:33). Another time he was on the way to the house of Jairus whose little daughter is sick. But he is interrupted by a woman who had a great need, (Mark 5). He stops to attend to her and in the meantime the little girl dies. Well, we know what happens. A greater event than healing the sick takes place. It is almost as though Jesus likes interruptions! I wonder why?
Actually, Zimbabweans are also good at accepting interruptions. As in so many other ways, there is an inconsistency between their public life – in offices, hospitals, etc where they insist on the correct procedures and their private way of dealing with people outside the office where they will easily abandon what they are doing to help someone in need.
Maybe we should welcome the blind men who come into our life and ask us for help. They remind us not to run for safety behind our walls of correct procedures. Correct procedures is a superficial modern business layer laid over a deeper cultural belief in the worth of people as they are. Are we to give in to the superficial and lose what is deeper?
Post published in: Opinions