Deborah Larsen Cowan

Dear Community in Christ:

I find it striking that the curing of blindness is the subject matter in two separate readings for today’s Office. In Mark, a blind beggar is sitting by the roadside. In Acts, Saul of Tarsus (eventually Paul) is on the road to Damascus when he is blinded by a great light from heaven and falls to the ground. The beggar and Saul are given back sight: the former by Jesus; the latter by Ananias. We are not sure about the beggar’s later life but I assume he had some adjustments to make, as science tells us all newly sighted people do. We know that the converted Paul’s life was radically changed. I believe they both had to cultivate courage.

Equally striking are the spoken repetitions in the two books. I seized on these phrases, these fragments within verses:

Mark 10: 52 And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up....’
Acts 22:10 The Lord said to me, ‘Get up....’
Acts 22:16 ‘And now why do you delay? Get up...’

Get up. People in the crowd say “get up” to the beggar before his cure; he not only gets up—he springs up when he hears Jesus is calling him.

Saul is told twice to “get up” in Acts. The Lord says, “get up....” After being led by the hand to Damascus (I imagine him falling into a chair after all that!), Ananias says “get up” after he restores Saul’s sight.

Even when we are passionately committed to a cause, the first stages in giving oneself to a new insight or new work or new life sometimes involve the effort of getting up and beginning. This takes courage: the courage to create.

I read or heard a story somewhere about a well-trained, caged parrot who kept ordering the well-trained family dog to roll over. “Roll over!” “Roll over!” “Roll over!” The poor dog spent little time on her feet as a result.

I must confess that sometimes when I am writing another book or working on some new undertaking, a parrot in the cage of my head says, “Nah, don’t get up. Lie down. Roll over!” Roll over. Put it off. Don’t do that. Too much risk. This will never be perfect. People won’t like it. Don’t get up. Lie back down; sit back down. You’re too young. Or—you’re too old.

Thinking about Mark and Acts now, I silence the “roll over!” by throwing a cracker to the parrot in my head. Instead, I listen to the voice of the Lord and the voice of Ananias; I spring up; I screw up the courage to create something new, if imperfect; I take heart; I make my Daily Bread with little delay and share it, hoping some others might take a bit of courage from it.

—Deborah Larsen Cowan