REPOST Today’s Spiritual Food for Thought, provided by Pastor Ryun Chang (AMI Teaching Pastor), was first posted on January 25, 2014.
Spiritual Food for Thought for the Weekend
“Barbara Walter’s Most Memorable Interview”
1 Cor. 1:27
“. . . God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
When Barbara Walters, perhaps the most celebratory journalist of our time, was asked what her most memorable interview was, she didn’t mention a “president or a king or a movie star”; instead it was someone she first interviewed some 40 years ago. Said Walters, “He was a teacher and a poet, and the most inspirational person I have ever met. His name is Robert Smithdas.” Many years later, she revisited him, who was now married to a woman who, like him, was deaf and blind. She report[ed] “how they manage to live independently; cooking by touch, using teletype-style phones and computers.”
Now, if you ever asked Mr. Smithdas how he felt about a God who allowed him to be born deaf and blind, he would have told you in a poem: “I praise my God for giving me the sound and the sight that I hear and see from within. I praise my God for my life and all that He has done for me. I praise my God for every breath I take.” Yet, the most powerful moment of the interview came at the end when Mr. Smithdas and his wife were seen taking the Holy Communion together. Walters, who may or may not be a Christian, said to her co-host, “I shall never complain about anything.”
While her remark certainly captured what Paul said, “Do everything without complaining or arguing” (Phil. 2:14), it didn’t do justice to that which was deeply embedded in the hearts of the Smithdas couple: Christ. A more fitting passage would be, “I want to know Christ . . . and fellowship of his sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10). Perhaps, they understood like no other a God-Man who became mute before his oppressors (Is. 53:7: “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth”) and was “blinded” by blood from his forehead pierced by the crown of thorns. Surely, that was the “fragrance of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15) that Walters sensed.
In a world that is so antagonistic toward our faith, perhaps we need to talk a little less and be more like Christ in his suffering and sacrifice. Take a moment to identify with the muteness and the blindness of Christ. What would that mean to you at the present moment? Could it be not talking back to those who are insulting you? Instead, we put into practice what Ps. 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Perhaps, a whisper will be heard, saying, “The battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chron. 20:15).
Prayer: Lord, remind me and get me to get the most out of all that You have given me. Remind me and get me to stop complaining about all that I don’t think I have. Thank You for Jesus. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Micah 6-7