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Today, I’m happy to welcome a remarkable guest to the blog. Travis Peterson pastored an SBC church plant in suburban Chicago for two years, and then spent several years as pastor of an international, English-speaking congregation in South Korea. He has since served as pastor of an SBC congregation in southeastern Illinois. And he is legally blind.

Travis’ service to the kingdom despite his physical blindness is a living testimony of the truth of 2 Corinthians 12:9:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Trevin Wax: Travis, tell us a little bit about your blindness.

Travis Peterson: I was born with a rare, genetic disorder of the eyes that left me legally blind from infancy. For some of my younger years, I could see colors, contrasts, and brightly-lit things; but by the middle of my time in college, I pretty much used my ears for everything. I have ridden a bicycle, caught a football, gone water-skiing, and just about anything else that a normal guy would do growing up. However, at this point in my life, I only use my limited light-perception to check to see if a lamp is still on in the living room.

Trevin Wax: How does a blind guy from rural Illinois end up serving as a pastor in multiple places around the world? How has God worked with you through your weakness?

Travis Peterson: I am often asked questions like these, along with many logistical questions about how I accomplish pastoral tasks as a person who is blind. Perhaps, as I try to answer the most common question, how I deal personally with the concept of being a blind pastor, you will find encouragement to serve God in your own weaknesses too.

I remember very clearly one morning while a student at Southern Seminary. I had just sat down in my systematic theology class, when a fellow student told me that God was using my situation to convict him. This student told me that, as he watched me work through the process of traveling to and from class, studying for tests, taking notes, reading the textbooks, and all the rest, he knew that these things required a great deal of extra work for me. Then my classmate said something that taught me a great deal. He told me that, if I could work through my difficulties to do what needed to be done, that he knew that he had no excuse for being lazy when it came to his own studies. Right then and there, I understood something important about how God uses my weaknesses to encourage, challenge, and perhaps even motivate other believers.

Trevin Wax: Would you characterize your weakness as a blessing?

Travis Peterson: Yes. Though it impacts my life in many ways, it is also a great blessing. You see, when God uses me to accomplish something (be it a sermon that communicates his glory and grace, a counseling session that helps a believer make progress in sanctification, or an evangelistic encounter), God gets the glory.

My weaknesses, in the minds of many, make it seem extremely difficult to do what I do. Honestly, people often vastly overestimate how hard it is to function as a blind person, but that’s another topic for another day. The good side of all this, however, is that, when God accomplishes something through me, nobody is thinking what a great guy I am. They are always looking to see how strong, how amazing, how powerful God is. They see that if God can use me in my weakness, he most certainly can use anybody. The fact is, there is no weakness that is not worth enduring if, in the end, God uses it to give you the joy of experiencing his glory.

Trevin Wax: Though most of us haven’t faced the physical challenges you have, all of us have weaknesses of some sort. How would you encourage us to view our weaknesses?

Travis Peterson: Think about the weaknesses you have. Reflect on the hardships you have faced. And then ask yourself: Do you look at these as hindrances to ministries or as avenues through which God can bring himself glory?

God told Paul that his strength is shown to be perfect in our weakness. Do not despise, therefore, hardships, weaknesses, struggles, or frailties. Of course they make life hard. However, they prove to those who see your life that God, not you, is the one who is worthy of all glory and all praise for every single good thing that comes from your life.

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