The story of Helen Keller is a remarkable one. Due to illness at the age of 19 months, she lost both her sight and hearing. I can hardly even imagine what that would be like to live with both of those disabilities and how one would even go about trying to teach someone with those disabilities. However, through the faithful and patient work of her tutor, Anne Sullivan, Keller learned to not only speak, but to become an author and advocate for people with disabilities. It’s truly a miracle that Keller was able to learn and accomplish so much in her life, but she had no hope of ever doing so without the intervention of her tutor.
It occurs to me that we can be a bit like Helen Keller. While our physical eyes and ears may work, spiritually we are not only blind and deaf, but completely dead. According to Ephesians 2:1, we were “dead in [our] transgressions and sins”. One who is dead does not learn anything. One who is dead does not grow. We have no hope of ever learning and growing without Christ. Only through His loving intervention can we ever have life.
As long as we think we can do something on our own, we’ll probably keep trying to do it with our own power. We have to acknowledge that we are unable without God’s intervention, so let’s be quick to acknowledge our spiritual problem and call out to God!