Glory Days - Fanny Crosby

1820–1915

The teenage Fanny Crosby had been summoned to the superintendent’s office at the New York Institution for the Blind. Since she was a prize student and already known as a promising writer, she had little fear about this encounter. “My friends had nearly spoiled me with their praises,” she wrote later about her school days. She assumed the superintendent would ask her to write a new poem for the school. Not so.

“Fanny,” the superintendent began, “I am sorry you have allowed yourself to be carried away by what others have said about your verses. True, you have written a number of poems of real merit; but how far do they fall short of the standard that you might attain?” It was important for her to “shun a flatterer,” he said. “Remember that whatever talent you possess belongs wholly to God; and that you ought to give Him the credit for all that you do.”

This story helps us understand how influential that school was in Fanny’s spiritual and artistic development. It would be easy to pamper a blind student, heaping praise on everything she accomplished, but this educator challenged Fanny to do her best. In retrospect, Fanny herself admitted she had begun “to feel my own importance as a poet a little too much.”

In our age of “self-esteem,” the issues of praise and humility can get murky. We can and should take satisfaction in the good things we do, but it also helps to challenge ourselves to make maximum use of the abilities God has given us. Make no mistake: we are loved fully by God, even if we fail in our attempts at greatness. In fact, that confidence can set us free to reach even higher. We’re not trying to earn God’s love—we already have that—but we offer our best efforts for the greater glory of God.

After teaching at the same school she had attended, Fanny Crosby eased into professional songwriting, first collaborating on some popular and patriotic songs, then writing hymn texts. With a knack for expressing the Christian experience, Fanny Crosby changed church worship for the next century. One of her most beloved songs harkens back to that superintendent’s office: “To God be the glory, great things he hath done.”

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness.

Psalm 115:1