Dharius Daniels - The Dangers of Living Life with No Vision

When you start questioning your worth and your worthiness as it relates to being in certain rooms, what you’re actually questioning is God’s judgment. God is saying, «So you think I didn’t know what I was doing when I put you there? I put you there because I know something about you that you don’t know.» He’s a blind man, which means—or metaphorically can speak to—a person living life without vision. Helen Keller is quoted as saying this: that Mississippi Miracle stated the only thing worse than being blind is having sight with no vision. He is living a visionless existence. The text says he’s been blind since birth, which means he’s never lived life with vision, so darkness is normal. Did you hear what I just said? Darkness is normal. He’s been in darkness so long now that he knows how to survive in darkness; he knows how to navigate his way through it. Darkness is all he knows, so darkness is normal to him. Because we can deal with darkness or dysfunction for so long, we become functional in the midst of dysfunction, not realizing that it’s still dysfunctional even though we are functional in it.

And here’s the thing: I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to walk around in the dark, but if you have, it increases the likelihood of injury. Did you hear what I just said? I said you can bump your toe, or you can run into something with your forehead, because when you’re operating with a visionless existence, it increases the likelihood of injury. And there are some injuries we’ve had relationally; there are some injuries we’ve had emotionally; there are some injuries we’ve had spiritually; there are some injuries we’ve had professionally because we’ve been walking around in the dark. I might as well tell you that some people like you better when you’re blind because, yeah, some people are saying, «You’ve changed.» No, I haven’t changed. The difference is God has opened my eyes, and now that He’s opened my eyes, I can see you and realize that you’re not for me the way you say you are for me. It causes injury.

But watch this: I don’t know if you’ve walked around in the dark, but not only does it cause injury, it also inhibits acceleration. You don’t go fast in the dark. Did you hear what I just said? You don’t go fast in the dark. Some of us know what it’s like to not move at the pace, speed, and rate you have the potential to move in. Your legs work, so you have the ability to do it, but your eyes don’t see it, and did you hear what I just said? You’re wrestling with the reality of feeling like you’re behind schedule because you’ve been walking around in the dark. But I believe it will change; that’s something that God can change. He can open your eyes, and when your eyes get opened, you will experience acceleration. Somebody say «acceleration»! That means God can get you further, faster. Joel put it this way: it is the redeeming of time. He buys back time; He doesn’t give you more time—that’s not redemption. He buys back old time. He takes your old Mississippi and takes your time back for you. God walks into the pawn shop and takes it back, saying, «I’m going to do more in the time you have left than you could have done in the time you wasted.» He said when He redeems 10 years, it means He takes one year and does for you in that one year what you couldn’t do for yourself in 10. Acceleration, acceleration, acceleration, acceleration! And if acceleration is connected to my sight and not my conditions, then acceleration can happen at any moment. If acceleration is determined by some internal revelation and not some social condition, it means that it doesn’t matter if there’s a pandemic; it doesn’t matter if gas prices are high; it doesn’t matter if no one will help me; it doesn’t matter if no one supports me— as soon as I can see, I can move!

Yeah, did you hear what I just said? I said, as soon as I can see, I can move! I need somebody to just touch yourself and say, «I see something, I see something!» God must be getting ready to move some things in my life. Y’all ready for this? I don’t know if you’re ready for this next part. You sure you’re ready? Okay, here it is: it increases the likelihood of injury, and now it inhibits your acceleration. But when you’re also visionless, when you can’t see, it demands assistance. Did you hear what I just said? It demands assistance. It means you have to have other people do things for you that you could do for yourself if you could see. It produces a codependency that would not be necessary if you could see. It requires unrelenting affirmation from others that wouldn’t be needed if you could see, right? It makes it more difficult to overcome and arrest imposter syndrome— always feeling like you don’t belong— not realizing that the questioning of myself in certain rooms is actually the questioning of God’s judgment. Did you hear what I just said? I said when you start questioning your worth and your worthiness as it relates to being in certain rooms, what you’re actually questioning is God’s judgment. God is saying, «So you think I didn’t know what I was doing when I put you there? I put you there because I know something about you that you don’t know, and I’m trying to open your eyes so that you can see you belong here.» I feel old school church in here tonight! Somebody say, «I belong here»!