[Faith-Talk] Thought-provoking Article on Blindness, Healing and Evangelism

Sat Sep 5 21:31:13 UTC 2026

Dear Chriss, Et Al,

Thank you and thank you from the bottom of my heart. I couldn't agree on what Mr. Marlon has stated in his conversation with the rude gentleman at his table. Yes, he did not listen. He simply took the bible too literally. 
I've seen people do that. Simply take the Bible taken too literally and legitimately.
I don't like it. 
I've encountered people on the streets you know how many times and attempted to pray for me.
I just don't like it.
This is why, quite frankly and honestly, I've been shying away from my Catholicism.
I was raised Catholic, went to church every Sunday, and I was a practicing Catholic for most of my college and high school life, playing piano for the church Mass service.
But I still get this anxiety and intimidation with the Priest's Sermons sometimes.
These days I've even seen it where during the sermon, the Priest references the bible and asks people to open the page(s) where he is reading.
This happens especially during Lent, where, in the liturgy, we have a few Sundays where the Gospel references blind people being healed.
Once I've even listened to a Mass service, where at the end, the Priest literally says, to the crowd gathered, "do I see you? Do you see me? Use your eyes... find God..." or something like that alluding to the fact that literally we must see the priest and each other and make eye contact with each other to find Christ. 
That felt if I'm being brutally honest with you, very rude, and very ableist.
Ableism and the way they outcast blind people in the church community is what's keeping me from practicing truly my Catholic faith.
I know I'm committing a grave sin by not going to church every week.
But, every time I go, instead of feeling the relief from the Lord, I feel trepidation, anxiety, and pain. I don't know what the Priest will say, or what members of my church community will say, or do towards me for being blind.
I've seen it many times, too many times.
God will heal your blindness.
God will restore your blindness.
God will save you because you can't see the world, and the joy in the world.
But how can God restore something that I have yet to be had? How can here repair something that doesn't need to be? How can he "fix" my identify as a blind person?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
I identify as blind!
And proudly so!
I am a proud Federationist, after all.
I can live the life I want!
It's so, so damn hard to find a church that can affirm me as a blind man of faith, truly.
And people who can see me for who I am. A competent church musician, a good listener, a contributing member of the community, who gives back, or what have you.
I don't really understand it.
I feel especially pained since the Catholic church historically is very slow to change.
So, I don't know what to do at this point.

I'm seriously contemplating converting to something else.
If I uphold myself in peace, love, hope, determinations, and how expectations for myself and others, God will always be by my side anyway.
God loves me.
God affirms me.
God knows exactly what I want, even if people do not see it anywhere.
God lays a plan for me and sometimes I don't even know what it really is.
But whatever it is, I do know this beautiful fact of my life:
God planned my blindness to be, and it planned for it to be a peaceful, beautiful, and wonderful thing.
Because without people of diverse abilities, and people of diverse backgrounds and diverse ways that humans do and live with things, the world wouldn't be as whole as it is.
Yes, people do bad things and treat us awful.
But God judges us all accordingly.
So I'll just stick with the Federation.
For if I am part of a beautiful movement of likeminded individuals who share my hopes and dreams, and my high expectations, values, ETC, I know god will like this.
And I shall forever live the life I want.
God is always with me.
Thank you for reading, and all of that and I wish you a blessed day.

-----Original Message-----
From: Faith-Talk <faith-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Chris Nusbaum via Faith-Talk
Sent: Saturday, September 5, 2026 1:44 PM
To: faith-talk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Chris Nusbaum <cnusbaumnfb at gmail.com>
Subject: [Faith-Talk] Thought-provoking Article on Blindness, Healing and Evangelism

Hi All,

Those of you who are on Facebook may have seen the below article already, since it has been shared quite widely within the blind community and beyond. But I wanted to put it here for the benefit of those who aren't on Facebook but might find it of interest. The original author is Marlon Pareajo. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on his story and reflections. Enjoy!

I am going to preface this by making something abundantly clear.
I am unapologetically a believer in Jesus Christ.
For my Trinidad and Tobago people, I am talking:
Saved.
Sanctified.
Holy Ghost filled.
Water baptised.
‘Jesus-is-mine’ Christian.
The whole package.
And as believers, we are commanded to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Absolutely.
But I have also learned something.
Sometimes, in our enthusiasm to tell people about Jesus, we become so busy talking that we forget to listen.
Allow me to explain.
I walked into my local Subway with one simple objective:
Egg and cheese sandwich.
Lipton tea.
Peace.
That was the mission.
The customer service at this particular Subway is exceptional. Every so often, they even manage to make me grin broadly enough to display all twenty-eight-or-so teeth still reporting for duty.
“Good morning, sir. Welcome to Subway.”
“Good morning.”
“Egg and cheese sandwich and a tea?”
“Correct.”
“And how would you like your tea? Strong like you, or sweet like me?”
See what I mean?
Ms. Sweet guided me to a seat, and I began dealing with my sandwich while listening to Chris J on 98.1 FM.
Life was good.
Then a voice appeared.
“Excuse me. How long you blind now?”
“Fifteen years.”
I have been asked that question so many times that the answer practically leaves my mouth by itself.
“Fifty years?!”
The voice sounded like a man somewhere in his early sixties.
“No. Fifteen. One-five.”
“Oh.”
Pause.
Then came the sermon.
“You know if you ask God for your sight back, and you really believe, you will see again?”
“Yes, I do.”
I was trying to get the last piece of sandwich into my mouth.
“By His stripes, I am already healed.”
That apparently disrupted his programme.
“So you saved?”
“Yup.”
“You sure?”
“Pretty much.”
“But you blind still?”
“Uh-huh.”
“But the Bible say Blind Bartimaeus was immediately healed.”
“My name is Marlon, not Bartimaeus.”
“Stop making joke about God. You don’t have enough faith.”
“I’m not joking. I’m stating a fact. My name really is Marlon.”
“Blindness is from de devil.”
“Okay. Noted.”
“And the Bible say we have to lay hands on the sick and they will be healed.”
“Also noted.”
“So if you still blind, you are not saved.”
Now he had my attention.
“Really?”
I leaned back slightly.
“Tell me more.”
Silence.
Perhaps he was trying to figure out whether I genuinely wanted to hear more.
Perhaps he was reconsidering his theology.
Perhaps he was quietly checking ChatGPT.
I cannot confirm.
“So,” I began slowly, “is it that you believe once somebody gets saved, life becomes a picnic from then on?”
Silence.
“Is it that you believe anything you ask God for, He must give you exactly what YOU want, exactly when YOU want it?”
Silence.
“Is it that you are saying I know what I need for my life better than God does?”
He eventually found his voice.
“But you blind and suffering.”
“Suffering?”
I almost laughed.
“Do I look like I’m suffering to you?”
“But you BLIND!”
Ah.
There it was.
Apparently blindness and suffering were synonyms.
“So blind equals suffering?”
“Yes! Nobody want to be blind.”
Interesting.
There I was.
Eating a sumptuous breakfast.
Listening to the radio.
Waiting on my colleague to take me to work.
Going to a job where I serve as a police sergeant.
Having left my beautiful wife at home.
My daughters safe and sound.
A career.
A family.
A purpose.
A testimony.
Food in front of me.
Tea beside me.
Christ within me.
Oh, somebody please rescue me from my terrible suffering.
“Kind sir,” I said, “the Bible says that by His stripes we are healed. Yes. But where does it say every healing must happen immediately?”
He said nothing.
"What is better? That I demand instant gratification from God and decide something is wrong with me–or worse, something is wrong with Him–if I don’t get what I want right away?”
I paused.
“Or that I trust in God whether I can see or not?”
Silence.
“Have you ever considered that my blindness may actually be part of His plan?”
“Blindness come from the devil.”
“But God can use my blindness for His purpose, can’t He?”
“No.”
I laughed.
I genuinely laughed.
“So you’re telling me the devil is more powerful than God?”
Silence.
“You’re saying God cannot take something the enemy intended for evil and use it for His glory?”
More silence.
Then I said something I wish more believers would remember.
"Your heart might be in the right place.
But your ears aren’t."
Because somewhere during this entire conversation, the gentleman had decided what my story was without actually listening to it.
He had decided I was suffering.
He had decided I lacked faith.
He had decided I needed salvation.
He had decided what God should do with my life.
And he had done all of that without once asking me what God had already done.
So I told him.
“I have prayed for healing.”
“I have believed for healing.”
“And I still believe God can restore my sight whenever He chooses.”
“But my relationship with Christ does not depend on whether He does.”
I smiled.
“If I see again tomorrow, Christ is Lord.”
“If I remain blind for the rest of my life, Christ is still Lord.”
“And that is enough for me.”
I stood to leave.
“Yuh leaving? Yuh eh want me lay hands on yuh?”
“You can pray for me.”
Pause.
“But I don’t think we need to go as far as touching.”
“You need Jesus in order to see again.”
I sighed.
We had apparently made absolutely no progress.
“May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He cause His face to shine upon you and give you peace.”
And I left.
Still blind.
Still saved.
Still believing.
Still trusting.
And, surprisingly, still in possession of enough faith to make it through the rest of the day.
But the encounter stayed with me.
Because as Christians, we absolutely must share the Gospel.
We cannot become ashamed of Jesus.
We cannot become so afraid of offending people that we never tell them about the One who saved us.
But witnessing is not merely waiting for someone to stop talking so that we can start preaching.
Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do before telling someone about Jesus is to listen to them.
Listen to their story.
Listen to their pain.
Listen to their questions.
Listen to what they already believe.
Listen to what God may already be doing in their life.
Jesus did not treat every person He encountered as though they were identical.
He asked questions.
He responded to individuals.
He dealt with people where they were.
And perhaps we should do the same.
Share the Gospel boldly.
Speak the truth without embarrassment.
Tell people about the cross.
Tell them about grace.
Tell them about salvation.
Tell them about Jesus.
But while you are speaking for God, be careful that you do not become so convinced you know what God wants to say that you forget to hear the person standing in front of you.
Because sometimes the person you are trying to witness to already knows Jesus.
Sometimes they need encouragement.
Sometimes they need prayer.
Sometimes they need an answer.
Sometimes they simply need somebody to listen.
And sometimes, before God can use your mouth, He may need you to open your ears.

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