Posted February 24, 2025

The 2009 movie “The Blind Side”, is a story of how compassion and community support changed the life of a young foster child, with a happy ending. The setting of this movie centers around football. A player’s blind side is usually where he needs protection the most. In life, we, too, are vulnerable and may have a “blind side”. Hezekiah Walker recorded a popular gospel anthem, “I need You to survive...Stand with me, Agree with me”.

A "Blind Spot", however, is a human characteristic that does Not reflect compassion or support. The dictionary calls a blind spot an area in our thinking that reflects biases, partialities or defense mechanisms. It is the inability to “see” anything other than what you want to “see” about something or someone. It is a place of "not knowing"; a place of darkness to the truth.

A blind spot can hold us back in our walk as a Christian. Charles Spurgeon, a 19th century Baptist minister regarded by many as the greatest preacher in all of church history, once wrote, “The same sun that melts wax hardens clay. And the same Gospel which melts some persons to repentance hardens others in their sins”. Commentary on this passage says people can hear the same Gospel preached. Some hearts are softened by it, These are the ones who are open to the truth that they are sinners in need of a savior. Other hearts are hardened by what they hear. These are the ones who are partial to their tradition and interpretation, not the Word of the Gospel when it reminds them they can never be "good" enough to enter heaven on their own, by their works: “I’ve been going to church for years, I do ‘this’ and I do that’ ”. The same Word that “melts” the heart of the repentant sinner “hardens” the heart of the one who has a blind spot to the truth.

Do You have a “blind spot”? Bishop T.D. Jakes asks, What’s in Our blind spot? Are we unable to "see" that some people’s state in life – poverty, homelessness, incarceration - is not simply personal failures or bad choices but rather a more “complex reality”? Do we only see the "what" and not the "why"? Bishop Jakes says it’s easy to believe, “They did it to themselves”, but then he says, “Has God ever gotten You out of something you did to Yourself, you got Yourself in?" Dr. Dharius Daniels also talks about this relational phenomenon. He asks, “Do you look at others and feel you didn’t have anything to do with their problem, so you’re not responsible to help with it?” Then he reminds us, Jesus came to fix something He didn’t mess up!

Who is suffering in your blind spot because of something you refuse to "see"? Do you reflect the mercy you have been given or are you judgmental about the same thing you needed God to fix for you? 1 John 4:20 says “For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (NIV). God rejects our love for Him until He sees our love for others. His Word in Romans 9:15 also says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (KJV). 

Dr. Daniels shares three weapons against a blind spot:

1) Be Engaged– don’t just walk past those who are not like you! Get close enough to hear them, to know what’s bothering them.

2) Be Empathetic- don’t just walk past those who don’t have your last name! Acknowledge that they need opportunities.

3) Be Advocates- Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Help people who are in trouble. Stand up for what you know is right and judge all people fairly. Protect the rights of the poor and those who need help.” (ESV)

Jesus spoke to His disciples, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never live in darkness. They will have the light that gives life” (John 8:12 ESV). Let us always allow the light of love to "eclipse" our blind spots.