Character in Real Life
ONE-MINUTE TESTIMONIALS
For CONTENTMENT vs Covetousness
Faith Committee, Character Council of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
Contentment is realizing that true happiness does not depend on material conditions.
FANNY CROSBY II
By Steve Withrow
Pastor / Editor – Charlotte, NC
Fanny Crosby, America’s most prolific and beloved writer of sacred songs, was blinded from infancy by the treatments of a pretending doctor. She was never resentful, but contented, even exuberant at the advantages she believed her blindness had created. In her adult years she would say, How in the world could I have lived such a helpful life as I have lived had I not been blind?”
Her greatest joy was to be “useful” to God, and her 8000 gospel songs fired the revivals of her era. She was usually paid only one or two dollars per poem, content to leave the profits and rights to others. This willing spirit animated her pen, with powerful and sometimes immediate results. Many of her songs were written “on demand” for evangelists like D. L. Moody who would employ them the same night in their crusades. Oftentimes her songs were the decisive influence as hundreds gave their hearts to Christ.
The words of Jesus, spoken to Mary who anointed him with perfume, adorn Fanny’s gravestone. They express the legacy of a woman so content to be useful:
“She hath done what she could.”
Editor’s Note:
Among her 8,000+ hymns and gospel songs, Fanny Crosby has the following titles to her credit:
Blessed Assurance, A Shelter in the Time of Storm, He Hideth My Soul, I Am Thine, O Lord, Near the Cross, Pass Me Not (O Gentle Savior), Praise Him Praise Him, Redeemed, Rescue the Perishing, Safe in the Arms of Jesus, Take the World but Give Me Jesus, Tell Me the Story of Jesus, Tho’ Your Sins Be as Scarlet, To God Be the Glory
Contentment is realizing that God has already provided everything I need for my present and future happiness.