the unquenchable worshipper: part II

I recently heard the story of Fanny Crosby, the American hymn writer who lived during the nineteenth century.  She described a life-changing incident that happened to her as a baby:

When about six weeks old I was taken sick and my eyes grew very weak and those who had charge of me poulticed my eyes.  Their lack of knowledge and skill destroyed my sight forever.  As I grew older they told me I should never see the faces of my friends, the flowers of the field, the blue of the skies or the golden beauty of the stars...Soon I learned what other children possessed, but I made up my mind to store away a little jewel in my heart which I called “Content.”

In fact, Fanny Crosby was only eight years old when she wrote this song:

O what a happy soul am I!
Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy,
That other people don’t.
To weep and sigh because I’m blind,
I cannot, and I won’t.

This contented worshipper went on to write around 8,000 hymns of praise.  Those thousands of songs were simply the result of a fire that burned in her heart for Jesus and could not be put out.  Someone once asked her, “Fanny, do you wish you had not been blinded?”  She replied, in typical style, “Well, the good thing about being blind is that the very first face I’ll see will be the face of Jesus.”

Many people might have chosen the path of bitterness and complaint as their response to God; but she chose the path of contentment and praise.  The choice between these two paths faces us each day, with every situation that’s thrown our way.  Bitterness dampens and eventually destroys love for God.  It eats away at the statement “God is love” and tells us He is not faithful.  But contentment does the opposite: it fuels the heart with endless reasons to praise God.

And there ARE endless reasons to praise Him!  The brightness of His glory and the wonders of His heart will no doubt have us pouring out new songs [about Him] for all eternity.


[taken from The Unquenchable Worshipper: Coming Back to the Hearth of Worship, Matt Redman, 20-22.]