Once I Was Blind But Now I See! (UPDATED)

UPDATE: A number of readers have commented that the second video in this post of “Amazing Grace” is not sung by Joni Mitchell but is in fact by Judy Collins. As you can see from the accompanying screenshot, the version I posted here is labelled as being sung by Joni Mitchell.

I have to admit, though, it does sound more like Judy Collins. Interesting that these two amazingly talented singers paths crossed so often. In any case, the point here is the hymn and regardless of which singer you think is heard here, it is a beautiful edition, so enjoy. And think about those lyrics!

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Former slave trader John Newton wrote his classic “Amazing Grace” in 1772 and it is today the most enduringly popular Christian hymn ever produced. Here we are 250 years later and people around the world, followers of Jesus Christ and others who are not, still love to hear and sing it.

A key to the continuing popularity of “Amazing Grace” is the fact that both its music and lyrics are softly powerful and uniquely capture the unspeakably wonderful aspects of the miracle of finding Jesus as your Lord.

Listen to this superb version of the hymn sung by Rosemary Siemens and think about the words in the lyrics:

And if you are of a certain age, you will recall Joni Mitchell’s delightful version. That she chose to include a version of this classic hymn is further testimony to its enduring power and popularity:

Regardless the version you prefer, the first verse is especially meaningful to me:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see

That verse captures for me in a way nothing else short of inspired scripture can the joy of my salvation, which came at 9:15 am on March 1, 1991. I’d been baptized as a teenager, but I didn’t really have a clue who Jesus is or why I needed to know Him. I’d claimed to be a Christian many times in the years after that baptism, but the way I lived my life proved that claim to be a lie.

For whatever reason, on that morning in 1991, the Lord chose to open my eyes to this terrible reality. Fortunately, and thanks to my Mother, I knew where to go for help. I cried out to Him to “please help me.” And He did. I’ve been sober ever since and He has changed me in so many ways that I can’t even begin to list them all.

I am like John Newton and millions of other believers. Thanks to my own sinful way of life, there came a storm in my life that threatened to overwhelm me and, just when all seemed lost, He reached out and opened my eyes to my need of Him. “Was blind, but now I see.”

The Gospel of John relates the story in the ninth chapter of the blind man who Jesus encountered as He was passing by. Jesus used His own saliva and the dirt of the road to make a mud that He put on the man’s eyes.

Then He told the man to go wash in a nearby pool. The man did so and for first time in his entire life, he could see. We can only imagine what this man felt the first time he saw the world we take for granted. In other words, Jesus mixed water — symbolic in scripture of divine grace — with the mud — the dirty reality of this world — of this man’s life to bring him what he never before had, sight.

When the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, saw that Jesus had healed the man on the Sabbath, they accused Jesus of not being from God. They also threatened the newly sighted man with expulsion from the Synagogue (a severe penalty that could mean loss of a job, alienation from family and much more) if he continued to insist that Jesus was from God.

Finally exasperated with how the Pharisees insisted on badgering him and his parents about Jesus, the man exclaimed to them, according to John 9:25, the one undeniable fact: “One thing I do know; I was blind and now I see.”

Was blind but now I see. If you are at a place in your life in which reading something like this post on HillFaith makes you uncomfortable, or inspires questions you cannot answer yourself, or just sparks a desire to know more about what it means to be healed of spiritual blindness, then let’s sit down and talk for a spell.

Just email me at mark.tapscott@hillfaith.org. We can meet on the Capitol Hill campus or off. It will be totally off-the-record, non-judgmental and as long or as short as you desire. I’ve been around the Hill, as an aide and as a journalist, for a lot of years and along the way I’ve learned some lessons that could be beneficial to you.

And if you don’t work on the Hill, that’s fine, too. Ditto if you live outside of the nation’s capital. We can meet on Zoom, talk on the phone, correspond by carrier pigeon or smoke signals, whatever works for you.

I will be happy to answer any questions you have (and if I don’t have the answer, I promise to find somebody who does), and you will then be free to decide what you do next. No preaching, no judging, just one joyful guy sharing with another person the truth that opened my eyes and can do the same for you.

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