Ordinary Heroes of the Faith - Pt 3

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23-24 ESV). Steve Morris was born in Saginaw, Michigan, a premature arrival into the world, he was blind from birth. When he was young, his family moved to Detroit where Steve would meet a woman who would give him the courage and the confidence to one day be extraordinary. As such an inspiration, Mrs. Beneduci is the real hero! She was Steve’s elementary school teacher. She was a wise woman who embraced the challenge of not just teaching her class of rambunctious 9 year-olds but helping them find purpose, direction and motivation in their lives. In Steve, she saw immense potential and was determined to help him see not his limitations but his gifts. She knew that inside the shy, introverted and at times intimidated exterior that Steve’s blindness cloaked him in, there was a boy who was exceptionally intelligent. “Amy,” asked Mrs. Beneduci one day in class as they studied history, “who was Abraham Lincoln?” The class exploded in laughter as Amy stumbled through a response about how he was a man with a beard. “Steve Morris?” the teacher continued, “same question.” “He was the sixteenth President of the United States,” came the answer without hesitation from the otherwise quiet youth. Steve always knew the answers. He was remarkable, a virtual prodigy in whatever subject they were studying. But Mrs. Beneduci realized that the boy’s intellect was wasted unless he recognized it and had the confidence to apply it. But how? Her answer came in a mouse. In the middle of her ensuring lecture about President Lincoln’s role in the Civil War, she stopped abruptly and called out, “Who’s making that noise?” Her puzzled class looked at each other. Steve sat quietly. The excited teacher continued, “I hear something like scratching … very faint,” she said, “it sounds like, like a …. mouse!” The class erupted in chaos as children screamed, some standing on their chairs but not Steve; he sat quietly and listened. “Calm down everyone,” Mrs. Beneduci extolled, “It’s nothing to be excited about. Steve, will you help me find the creature?” The young Morris sat upright in his seat immediately invigorated by this important assignment from his teacher. “OK,” he said, “everyone be quiet!” The classroom fell silent as Steve tilted his head, paused deliberately for a moment, and then pointed in the direction of a sound that none of his other classmates could discern – pointed in the direction of a wastebasket in a corner of the room. “He’s right over there!” the blind boy exclaimed, “I can hear him!” And indeed, Steve was right, for rummaging through papers at the bottom of the wastebasket was a small gray mouse who probably hoped no one would find him. But someone had found him – and found much more in the process. Steve could not see the tiny creature who would soon become the class mascot but he could hear its faint sounds as if trumpets had announced the hidden rodent. It seems that while Steve’s eyes did not work, his ears were exceptional. So it was that in the heart of small, blind boy that day, the seeds of pride were sown in the most unlikely of moments. It was a pride that would swell in the boy and a moment he would remember all of his life and retell many times as he grew into one of the world’s most beloved artists. Without the mouse, Steve Morris would not have discovered his passion for sound – and eventually music – and the world would have missed out on this musical titan, composer and producer; missed his seventeen gold records, four platinum albums and the five Grammy’s he won in 1975. Steve Morris could never see the multitude of fans that stood to applaud his work but he heard every one of them. He was blind at birth but he had a gift – an extraordinary gift that from age ten he shared with a world who knew him simply as … Little Stevie Wonder. Everyone surely remembers him; but, the story really begins with Mrs. Beneduci doing the ordinary! What ordinary thing do you need to do today? Do it heartily!