BLINDSIDED!

Have you seen the movie The Blind Side? This is a great movie about a true story. We won’t discuss that it’s about a member of the unspeakable NFL team in the Baltimore area. Rather, I’d like to talk about the idea of a “Blind Side.”

Are you familiar with the term? Your blind side is the place you can’t see. On cars, we call them “blind angles,” that place where the driver cannot see using peripheral vision or rear view mirrors.

Think about a time when something caught you totally off guard. You’re cruising along thru life when all of a sudden, WHAM!!! You’ve been “blindsided”! Do you know what I’m talking about now?

That’s what Sandra Bullock tells Quinton Aaron, playing the part of Michael Oher, that he was made to do… Watch the quarterback’s blind side!

So, tell me about your blind side. What does it look like? If you try to answer me, you’re mistaken. Because that’s the definition of a blind side, the place you can’t see!

How dangerous does a blind side sound to you? Well, scuba divers developed dive masks with side windows to increase their peripheral vision. That’s kinda a nice thing to have if you might encounter something like a shark, right? Add side windows, decrease your blind side. Sounds like a step in the right direction, agreed?

Let me introduce you to the Johari Window. It sounds like an exotic name, but it’s really just a blend of the first names of the developers, Joseph & Harry. The Johari Window is a tool to help you understand yourself better, especially how self-aware you are. Now, some of you are tuning out because this sounds too much like self-help psychology. Hang with me. It’s just a tool!

Everyone’s Johari looks different because it is determined by your own self-awareness and people whom you have invited into your life for accountability. If you are rather dull when it comes to introspection and self-analysis, your self-awareness is low. With good openness to accountability, your blind side can be radically reduced. However, teaming good self-evaluation with accountability, it can nearly be completely eliminated.

OK, now, back to God’s Word. The best way to reduce the likelihood of being blindsided in your Christian walk is a two-pronged approach:

First, it involves Scripture reading and prayerful reflection.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-- he will be blessed in what he does. James 1:23-25

But also, it includes brothers or sisters in the Lord with whom you are doing life together, people who have access to you and with whom you are open about your thoughts and deeds, your struggles and your failures. People with whom you are intimate.

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12