I read the Our Daily Bread devotional, and I filled in some of my lack of information about Anne Sullivan, the one I at least knew was the beloved teacher of Helen Keller. Most of us know the limitations blindness and lack of hearing placed on Helen Keller, and we know Anne Sullivan happened along and became Helen’s skilled, encouraging, and gifted teacher and friend. But, what compelled Anne to do what she did, and how did she ever become immersed in that compulsion?
The devotional gave part of the answer we are looking for when it gave us a short bio of Anne’s early life. Anne grew up in poverty and pain. Two of her siblings died in infancy. At five, an eye disease left her partially blind and unable to read or write. When Anne was eight, her mother died from tuberculosis. Shortly after, her abusive father abandoned his three surviving children. The youngest was sent to live with relatives, but Anne and her brother, Jimmie, went to Tewksbury Almshouse, a dilapidated, overcrowded poorhouse. A few months later, Jimmie died.
The difficult, painful, even tragic events of our lives though, do not, in and of themselves, compel us to reach out with compassion, insights, and skill to another person. What begins to compel us though is how we respond to those events. Wikipedia fills in a few more details for us. At the age of 14, Anne was given the opportunity to study at the Perkins School for the Blind. Beginning at Perkins was a little rough for Anne, but she persevered, and almost six years later, she graduated as valedictorian of her class. Speaking to her fellow graduates, she said, "Fellow-graduates: Duty bids us go forth into active life. Let us go cheerfully, hopefully, and earnestly, and set ourselves to find our especial part. When we have found it, willingly and faithfully perform it; for every obstacle we overcome, every success we achieve tends to bring man closer to God and make life more as He would have it."
Anne knew and acknowledged the brokenness of her own life, but she recognized too the One who had brought a transforming grace to her life that allowed her to overcome. And in overcoming because of what God had done, the compulsion grew to help others overcome, and she began working with Helen Keller shortly after her graduation from Perkins. For Anne, it became a lifelong relationship and commitment.
What about us??? What is the story I have or you have that I can rebel at, hide from, or allow it to distort my own choices, OR I can acknowledge it and put it all in the hands of God, transforming ME in the process and bringing beauty from the ashes of brokenness? AND, knowing what God has now done, do I keep the truths, the blessings, the principles, the skills, the insights, all to myself, or am I compelled to share as Anne was? Or, maybe think about Joseph in the Old Testament, or the woman Jesus met at the well, or Mary Magdalene, or Paul,
or ............................
– Bev
(Related Bible reading: Psalm 40:1-3;
2 Corinthians 1:3-7;
Romans 12:6-8; Colossians 3:16,17)
