[Faith-Talk] An Inspiring Letter

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hi Friends,

If you were at our membership call about ministering through music, you will remember that a question was raised about how to deal with those who want to pray over us without our request for the "healing" of our blindness. The resulting discussion brought to us profound (and I believe Spirit-led) infights, particularly from Tom Anderson and Linda Mentink. After Thursday's call, I continued to reflect on and pray about this subject, and I was referred by a friend to an article from the April 1980 issue of the Braille Monitor. This article contains a reprinting of a letter which Barbara Pierce wrote to the editors of Guideposts, a well-known Christian magazine that many of you are probably familiar with. Because of the thoughtfulness of Barbara's letter, as well as the way in which she melds together NFB philosophy and her Christian faith, I was deeply moved as I read and I thought I should share it with all of you. I hope reading this will be as much of a blessing to you as it has been to me.

Blessings,  

Chris Nusbaum

To The Editors of Guideposts Magazine 

Dear Friends: 

I am writing to you out of my distress at reading the article in the December issue of Guideposts, "The Woman Who Dared Not Cry," written by Charlotte Sanford. It is not my intention to try to change editorial decisions. That would be futile. My hope is rather that several people on your staff will read my letter and that my point of view will be incorporated into their understanding of blindness and therefore into their attitude toward future pieces that may be submitted. 

Let me begin by saying that tears came to my eyes as I read the woman's description of seeing her children. I am delighted that, wanting her sight so badly, she did receive it. I have searched myself as thoroughly as I can, and I find not one scrap of envy that she now has vision, and I do not. 

And yet there was a time when reading that article would have left me depressed for days, not because it happened to her and not me, but because of the very clear attitude which the article conveys that to be blind is somehow to be diminished, second rate, less adequate. Without doubt the author felt herself to be all these things as a blind woman. That is a fact, clearly expressed in almost every sentence. This is unfortunate and unnecessary, but there is nothing to be done about it. The depressing problem facing me and all other responsible blind people is that her attitude is shared by almost the whole sighted public, and articles like hers reinforce the fear, prejudice, and inadvertent discrimination which arise from such an attitude. People think, without even knowing that they are thinking it, "There is a blind woman talking about blindness, and she should know what she is talking about. Being blind must be every bit as bad as I always thought it would be." 

Sixty-five percent of all blind people are above the age of fifty-five. Most of them spent the greater part of their lives as sighted people, reading articles like this one in which the only happy ending can be the regaining of the lost sight, and coming to the conclusion that blindness is a kind of living death which at best may be endured with God's grace. 

I am writing to tell you that it's not like that anymore, or at least it doesn't have to be. But in order to let you understand, I must tell you a little about myself. I lost my sight gradually through my childhood. My parents couldn't believe that God intended this thing to happen to a child, and they pursued every avenue that medical science or faith healing could offer. A child pays a heavy price during years of this sort of thing when the prayers seem not to be answered. I have come to the conclusion that God does heal in many ways, and I believe that He is capable of giving me sight this moment if that were in His plan for me. I would be delighted if it were. I think it is not. 

I conclude this because I can see now that my parents' deepest prayer for my wholeness, my commitment to God, my willingness to do His will have been answered powerfully. And they have been answered as God so often answers our prayers, in a totally unexpected way. That is to say, my life has not been blighted by blindness. The discipline that blindness forced me to learn trained my mind. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from one of the finest colleges in the country. I married and have three beautiful children. Right now being a mother is the most important obligation in my life, but I have found part-time jobs, which have been interesting, have challenged me, and have given me a chance to prove to myself and the people around me that there is nothing second-rate about blindness or blind people. My Christian life has broadened and deepened through the years as well. My life and work are in God's hands, and there I am learning to leave them. 

This sense of my own worth in God's eyes and my own has come to me during the past six years. It is the work of the National Federation of the Blind, an organization of blind people, including many deeply committed Christians. We in the NFB have come to see that it is respectable to be blind. 

I believe that God does not intend for a single human life to be blighted. For some blind people this may in fact mean that His will is to give the gift of sight. But surely another way of achieving the same end is to metamorphose blindness so that it is not a blight neither alternative should be overlooked, but the NFB is virtually alone in working on the second. 

You can help by understanding that blindness is not a diminishment. It can be an opportunity to learn and stretch in new ways, to listen to God and other people with new ears. 

Thank you for reading this. I have written at God's prompting and leave this now in His hands and yours. 

Yours in Christ, 
Barbara Pierce 
Public Relations Chairwoman 
National Federation of the Blind