Paper airplanes and endless drawings of famous aircraft littered my childhood landscape.  Copious airplane books and VHS tapes of flight documentaries filled my shelves.  And every 25-cent balsa wood flyer had modifications; rudders, wing flaps, and swept wings.  Airplanes were the obsession of my childhood.

I could identify any and every Twentieth Century warplane. And I knew all the Air Force (and Army Air Corps) insignias.  My future plans always included flight.  So, when the time came to consider college options, I had a clear plan.  I intended to go to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado to begin my journey as a military aviator.

My academics were excellent.  My test scores exemplary.  I was even able to secure the requisite Congressional recommendation from our local congressman, Elliot Levitas.  Only one hurdle remained.  I had to pass the required battery of fitness and aptitude tests.  And so, on a sunny fall Saturday in 1983, I along with other hopefuls went to Dobbins Air Force Base to be put through our paces.  But it was there that all my plans came to a sudden and calamitous end.

At a little diorama with various planes and backgrounds, connected to strings and levers, something completely unanticipated was revealed.  My depth perception and visual acuity did not meet the tight standards required to qualify for flight training.   And in a moment my childhood dream vanished into thin air.

My uncorrected inability to perceive contrast in depth and distance or judge contours made me unfit.  It was not enough just to see what was on the surface.  Supersonic flight demanded more.  But so does following Jesus.   Cursory and casual study of the Scriptures and faith in our faith or in mere intellectual assent to certain religious ideas are not enough.  The saving faith God grants gives and grows a spiritual depth perception that enables us to follow Jesus and mature as disciples.

The importance of spiritual depth perception for discipleship is displayed vividly in the healing of Blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52.  This is the last healing miracle recorded in Mark.  A miracle that functions as the closing bracket to Jesus intensive teaching about the nature of his redemptive work and of the call to discipleship, teaching that began with the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida in Mark 8:22-26.

Between giving sight to these two men, we see the disciples struggle with what it means to follow Jesus and what it will cost.  We see them follow every pronouncement of his suffering with an argument about their own greatness and privilege.  And Mark, contrasts blind men who are given sight with spiritually sighted men who struggle with spiritual blindness.

As Jesus is leading the pilgrim throng to Jerusalem for the true Passover, we see a brief sketch of the healing of Bartimaeus on the outskirts of Jericho.  He is the only person healed in Mark’s gospel whose name is recorded.  And in receiving his sight, Bartimaeus exhibits a remarkable spiritual depth perception that illustrates for us what it looks like to grow and mature as followers of Jesus.

Join us as we examine Mark 10:46-52 and consider the story of Bartimaeus and some hallmarks of growing discipleship.  We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.