The Voice That Refused a Lesser Name

In 1820, six-week-old Fanny Crosby was blinded when a man posing as a doctor applied a mustard poultice to her inflamed eyes. The world would have written her story in a single word: disabled. But Fanny refused to let her circumstances author her identity.

By the time she was eight, she had written her first poem: "Oh, what a happy soul I am, although I cannot see. I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be." She went on to compose over eight thousand hymns, including "Blessed Assurance," a song whose opening line became her life's declaration: "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!"

When well-meaning people expressed pity for her blindness, Fanny offered a response that silenced every room: "If I had been given a choice at birth, I would have asked to be born blind, because when I get to heaven, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my Savior."

Fanny Crosby understood something the world still struggles to grasp. Our identity is not written by what happens to us. It is written by the One who made us. The labels the world assigns — broken, limited, less than — are rough drafts. The Almighty is the final Author, and He does not make mistakes.

What name has the world given you? And what name has God spoken over you instead?