Born blind and deaf, Helen Keller, who lived at the beginning of the 20th century, was an inspiration to the world. When Hitler was burning books in Germany in 1933, the first book on his “burn list” was her 1908 biography, he so despised disabled people. Those of you who have heard Helen Keller speak, and she lectured all over the world, know she had to have someone to interpret for her because, not hearing, it was a matter of her passionate jabbering. But, she said one time, “I ask people what they see when they take a walk and the usual response is “nothing”. What I would give to see one beautiful bird, one flower, even some green grass growing”.
Even though I have been totally blind most of my life, I did see when young. Totally blind people from birth have asked me to explain colors to them, the texture of a frog. You see, the families of the blind think we are mentally disabled or retarded. They never take the time to spend time with their blind relatives and friends. How often have you thanked almighty God for your sight, your hearing, your ability to communicate, even your ability to think? Most people I have known in my life are in a bondage of ingratitude. I thank God every time I taste a milkshake, a chocolate bar, or have a good night's sleep. Consider how many people never get a good night's sleep. Do you realize how many children in the world have never tasted anything tasty to eat? I think of the thousands of small children in Thailand and Nepal begging for anything a tourist would give them.
One man I knew in Thailand was a famed concert pianist from San Francisco. Some way, some how, he had some pieces of candy in his pocket and when he gave some of this candy to the children, they actually had him down on the ground searching his pockets for candy. My sister, living in the most beautiful I home I have ever visited, left her three small children with me one day when she went to a seminar at the University. I attempted to fix the children some lunch. They threw an absolute “fit” because I did not have “Hellman's mayonnaise”. One of my employees said her children would not eat leftovers. Such is the promiscuous, spoiled children of America who have never known want for anything, who have never known hunger and who, in most cases, have never known what it is to be thankful for anything.
Every morning of my life, at 5:00, this old totally blind 100% disabled veteran, celebrates what God did for me on Calvary when I take a small piece of bread and small sip of wine in HIS memory. This is the greatest form of gratitude when we go to the Lord's table, whether in your home or your place of worship. One young girl, a church member, said to me, “I have never participated in a communion service”. What is wrong with her pastor?
The greatest spirit in gratitude is in sharing, not just food and drink, but experiences of life and the faith you have in overcoming the problems of living and your devotion to the eternal life ahead. Most of all, be thankful for someone to share with. We do not know the names of the men who held the ropes and the basket helping the Apostle Paul down the wall in Damascus. We do not know the names of the men who went on the housetop with their friend and let him down on his bed in front of the Master Savior and Healer. We do not know the mother's name who prepared a small boys lunch when he went to hear the Savior of the world preach. The world is full of greatness never brought to our attention.
I went to my oldest Aunt's funeral at the church where she had served so faithfully. I remembered her as the hardest working woman, other than my mother, I had ever known. They owned a large motel. To save money, she washed all the sheets and towels herself rather than sending them to a laundry service. This is just one example of her frugality, leaving behind a fortune for ungrateful children and grandchildren. Her last 10 years were spent bedridden, drawn up in a fetal position (but still very alert mentally), physically spent, unable to move. My Uncle, her childhood sweetheart, cared for her continuously for many years. He could well afford to have people help him, but he cared for her. Later he said to me, when I was telling him the admiration the world had for his devotion, “I would do anything for her because I loved her so much”.
The intelligentsia of the world do not understand the power of prayer, the power of goodness. The Holy Spirit of God, in dwelling the hearts of redeemed men, will call you to do things for others that the world cannot understand. Within these saved vessels of God, there is a redeeming power of love, an inner force and concern which will cause a father or mother to accomplish amazing feats for children or for one another. There is an inner force which will cause a soldier to fall on a hand grenade to save the lives of his fellow soldiers. There was a force of concern for the souls of the lost in eastern North Carolina which caused my great grandfather to leave a comfortable home and large family and, through the worst of weather, travel by horse and buggy through almost impossible paths to places of worship in the state. He wrote, “I could hear the screams of the unsaved in Hell who never heard the message of salvation”. In a college graduation address, he spoke of returning from a large Baptist meeting in Nashville, TN where he had traveled by train and where he had seen electric lights and indoor plumbing for the first time. Think of the charlatans preaching on television, in today's world, traveling around on their private $20 million airplanes, sleeping in the finest hotels on silk sheets, eating off gold plates, enjoying the largess filtered through his hands, which hard working, tithing, tax paying, believing-called “saints” had given “as unto God”.
On a grassy knoll in Dallas, 46 years ago this week, people saw and heard what they wanted to see and hear. Debatable, indefensible, the killing of an American president. Everyday, our minds are twisted, our hearing polluted, our eyes defiled by the cameras. As in Dallas, man's inability to separate right from wrong.
We do what we do because we believe what we believe. It is time to escape the bondage of ingratitude and, with all our senses, come face to face with the way, the truth, the life (John 14:6).
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