Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. – Mark 8:25

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 8, 2014): Mark 8

Back in college I wrote a little poem at the bottom of one of my Psych exams. Apparently, I had some time left over and decided to put the time to good use with a poem rather than checking my answers on the test. And maybe that tells you a little about my priorities in school. The poem that I left on the bottom of my exam was actually a parody of the Billy Joel song “Get it Right the First Time.” For the enquiring minds, this is the poem I left for my professor –

You have to get it right the first time
That's the main thing
You have to get it right to get a pass
You get it right the next time that's not the same thing
F. F. Wise [Dr. Wise was my professor for the class] says “Make the first time last.”

For a student the words are rather appropriate. For all of our academic careers we are concerned with getting it right. There have been times when I have taken risks (one professor explained to me that taking a risk is one way of trying to get an “A” because the professor might learn something) but my risks have never really panned out. For the most part, my A’s have come from getting it right. But in so many ways the exam does not prepare us for life. I know a lot of people who seem to think that life is an exam. They argue an opinion to be right, just as I would defend my answers on an exam, because they somehow believe that the answer can’t be changed. But the truth is actually the reverse. Getting it right the first time is not the main thing. Getting it right is the main thing, even if it is on our second or third or even fourth tries. I am an avid American and Canadian Football fan, and I love the effort that refs put in to making sure that the call was right, from on the field discussions to video replay, and the willingness of a ref to step up to the mike and explain that “there was no infraction committed on the play.” We need to simply get it right – and not prove that we are right.

For most Christians, there is a belief that Jesus was perfect. And I am not arguing that he was not perfect. It is a belief that I share with the rest of Christendom. But this little verse in Mark shows us something that I think we often miss. Jesus, the Living Son of God who walked on water and fed the 5000 and the 4000 on what seemed to be manna from heaven, apparently did not always get it right the first time, he simply got it right. In this story, Jesus spit into the dust to make mud and placed that mud on the eyes of the blind man and then asked him what the saw. But the man saw men like trees – apparently the first application didn’t work. So Jesus did what any hairdresser would do – he rinsed and repeated. And this time the man saw the people clearly walking around him. Jesus simply got it right even though, for whatever reason, it took him two tries to get there. Getting it right in life might have less to do with our immediate answers than it has to do with our persistence in the pursuit of what is right. As long as we are willing to keep trying, we are on the right track.

Dr. Wise never did make a comment on the poetry I left for him, but I passed the exam - maybe explaining why I didn’t become a poet. I did have to take the course twice though, but eventually I got it right.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 17