{"id":5200,"date":"2026-02-02T08:51:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5200"},"modified":"2026-02-02T08:51:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:51:31","slug":"the-king-is-not-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/02\/the-king-is-not-blind\/","title":{"rendered":"The King is Not Blind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
\u00a0
Dr. David Livingstone, the celebrated 19th<\/sup> century British missionary, anti-slavery activist, and explorer of central Africa, arrived on one occasion at the edge of a large territory that was ruled by a tribal chieftain.\u00a0
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He was commanded to stop at the perimeter and wait.\u00a0
\u00a0
According to tradition, the chief would come out to meet him.\u00a0Livingstone could go forward only after an exchange was made.\u00a0
\u00a0
The chief would choose any item of Livingstone\u2019s personal property that caught his fancy and keep it for himself, while giving the missionary something of his own in return.
\u00a0
Livingstone owned very few things at this point in his life, but he obediently spread them all out on the ground.\u00a0It looked a bit like a yard sale.\u00a0
\u00a0
In truth he only cared about holding on to one thing:\u00a0his goat.\u00a0Livingstone had a chronic stomach problem, and goat\u2019s milk was one of the few nourishments he could handle.
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Therefore he prayed, \u201cLord, let this man take anything of mine he wants.\u00a0But don\u2019t let him take my goat. Blind him, Lord, to my goat.\u201d
\u00a0
The chief came forward, examined all of Livingstone\u2019s property, and then solemnly chose \u2026 his goat.\u00a0In exchange he gave the missionary a carved stick.\u00a0Livingstone, by his own testimony, was seriously bummed \u2013 although that\u2019s not precisely the terminology he used in his journal.
\u00a0
What was he going to do now?\u00a0And what good was this carved stick?
\u00a0
Someone standing alongside him explained, \u201cThe king has honored you greatly today.\u00a0In exchange for your goat, he has given you a scepter.\u00a0All of this territory is now open to you.\u201d
\u00a0
What looked like an unimaginable loss to David Livingstone turned out to be an incredible gain for the work to which he was ultimately committed.\u00a0And from that time on, his stomach problems virtually disappeared.
\u00a0
Poised at the edge of our next step with God, we may be desperately thinking, \u201cI hope God is blind.\u201d
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I hope God doesn\u2019t ask me to give up this relationship.\u00a0Or this opportunity.\u00a0Or this habit. Or this deep dream that I\u2019m still holding on to.<\/em>
\u00a0
But the King of all the earth is not blind.\u00a0And the King is profoundly wise.
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What we discover is that if we\u2019re willing to place all our situations in God\u2019s hands, and trust the outcomes to him, we will never lose our greatest blessing \u2013 the assurance that God is always holding on to us<\/em>.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Dr. David Livingstone, the celebrated 19th century British missionary, anti-slavery activist, and explorer of central Africa, arrived on one occasion at the edge of a large territory that was ruled by a tribal chieftain.\u00a0\u00a0He was commanded to stop at the perimeter and wait.\u00a0\u00a0According to tradition, the chief would come out to meet… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,141],"class_list":["post-5200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-accountability","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5202,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5200\/revisions\/5202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}