A Testimony of Greatness
“When I recollect the treasure of friendship that has been bestowed upon me, I withdraw all charges against life. If much has been denied me, much, very much has been given me. So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.” Helen Keller: blind and deaf in the limitations of the flesh, but seeing and hearing the unsurpassed wonders of the spirit because she found “the one” in Annie Sullivan who would pay the price to enable her to escape her soundless, sightless isolation![1]
A Response to God’s Great Goodness
And life is good because the Father, who began it for His purposes in us, will end it in His purposes for us. I know this, trust this, and will yield to this because Messiah Jesus appeared to reveal the Father and confirm His love and goodness. The Savior has made all these wonders clear enough to my simple, little mind and still powerful enough to my hungry heart that I might live in overcoming praise by the energy of His Spirit within me!
In these final months or years of my human decline, the Master has initiated in my heart a peace and sufficiency that passes understanding. Whatever “I am,” I have found Godhead assurance that I belong to “I AM” forever. There seems to exist an unending flood of His perfect love in me that continuously washes away all my fears! (I John 4:18).
I since I am presently living for only one desire, one ambition, and one passion that is wondrous enough to complete and satisfy me. I yearn more intensely than ever for that “final beginning” time when the Messiah’s Presence will be all and in all forever! I can’t even imagine the thrill of knowing the full reality of His Perfections of Purpose, Pardon, Peace, Power, and Perceptions – and, above all, His Person! Even in my weaknesses I have delighted myself in the Lord, and He has poured multitudes of His delights into me. How much more will I be exalted then! (Psalm 37:4). The Lord’s goodness both stuns me and scares me that such splendor could be mine. Yes! Life, as Messiah gives it, is very good!
“In the multitudes of my anxious thoughts within me Your comforts, Lord, delight my soul!” (Psalm 94:19, HDM). I have truly found “the ONE” who has enabled me to escape all that held me in soundless, sightless isolation in this fallen, imperfect world!
A Note from HDM[2]
I was in my late teens when I first heard Helen Keller’s story. I shall never forget the emotion of that moment, and her story has only grown more magnificent in its impact on my life in the intervening years. One of my great mentors, Sidlow Baxter, once told me that, when we most fully yield to the Holy Spirit, He gives us a “third eye” in our head which enables us to see the supernatural. Our two physical eyes see the dualities of earth! Our spiritual third eye lets us see the triunities of heaven! Until we learn to see with our third eye, we are as challenged to see the spiritual world as Miss Keller was to see the physical world. The dear Apostle Paul put it well, “Now we see our Lord indistinctly as if viewing things in a cloudy mirror, but then we shall clearly Him see as if we stood face to face” (I Cor. 13:12, HDM – paraphrase). Let us, my friends, strive to develop all our senses to the maximum and see as much as we can of Him until that day when we will truly SEE all! “The ONE” will lead us to do so if we truly follow Him!
[1] Helen Keller lost her hearing and sight at the age of 19 months and could neither see nor hear for the next 87 years. Keller and her teacher and companion, Annie Sullivan, who helped her escape her soundless, sightless isolation, continued her education until her graduation from Radcliff College, the first deaf-blind person to earn a BA degree. She became a prolific author, popular speaker, and ardent supporter of women’s suffrage, labor rights, and other progressive causes. She died in 1968 only 26 days short of her 88th birthday.
[2] I was born in 1932, as deaf and blind to the spiritual world as Helen Keller was to the physical world. My “second birth” came in 1950 and I began my journey of following Messiah Jesus! Now, in my eighth decade, I sense I have just begun to think most clearly, feel most keenly, and experience most impactively the riches my Master promised me all those years ago when He accepted my repentant heart as His own! I have sought to make all I have said, all I have done, all I have been, and all I may yet be reflect His eyes, mind, heart, patience, and image to everyone I encounter. I praise Him most that in my weaknesses I continue to have His forgiveness.
