By the time he was twenty-one years of age, Albert Schweitzer was already successful and world-famous as a musician and a philosopher. Then he entered medical school, became a medical doctor, and gave the remainder of his long life to the healing ministries of the mission hospital he established at Lambarene in French Equatorial Africa. What brought about this change in the focus and direction of this man's life?

Well, in a word, he became a dedicated and committed Christian. There came to him, he says, certain awareness, an awakening. He tells us about it in his book Out of My Life and Thoughts. He writes of "one brilliant summer morning" at Gunsback in 1896 when "there came to me, as I awoke, the thought that I must not accept this happiness as a matter of course, but must give something in return for it."

And so he did. His surging gratitude of spirit overflowed in kind acts of compassion touching the lives of more than 200,000 persons.

You know, somewhere along the way most of us need some kind of "Gunsback awakening." We need to become aware of how blessed we are and resolve to do something about it. May a Gunsback awareness of God's great goodness come with overflowing power upon us as we wait and worship here today.