An 87-year-old man begins his story of growing up in rural Mississippi—of what it was like to be poor, black, and relatively happy.  He never saw an electric light in a house before he was 16. He and his people lived on one side of the tracks and the privileged white folk on the other. There we two drinking fountains: one marked “WHITE,” the other “COLORED.”  He confessed:

   Sometimes there was nobody else around—so I’d go and fill up my belly with that good white water! But you know, all that white water didn’t taste any better than the colored water, so I began to wonder why I wasn’t supposed to be drinking it. Later I found out: it wasn’t about the water at all! It was about me and my kind—because we were black.

   It turns out that this young man decided not to think any less of himself or of his God-given talents even though all the wealthier white folk might think that way.  He persevered—kept doing the thing he believed God had put him here to do—and chose not to let it bother him, so far as he could help it.

   God blessed this man’s talent and empowered it beyond his wildest dreams. Now at 85, sitting on the front edge of a stage, grinning like a giant bullfrog (as he described himself), this man is the most imitated guitarist in history: the epitome of the Blues, Mr. B.B. King. 

   Twice during a performance I attended he told us that he thanks God for the life he lives and the changes he has seen in the world. Certainly here in B.B. King we find a true witness to the spirit of Gratitude.  His success may be attributed in part to some secondary factors such as connections, luck, and talent, but in the end it may be simply the man’s integrity—his dogged pursuit of becoming the man God intends him to be—that sets him above and beyond the throngs of guitar players who crave his success. Absolutely anyone who wants to play the blues on guitar must do homage to BB; there is no other way because he invented the forms that everyone else follows. Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan—all call him King, but BB insists upon passing that glory onto the one King of all. That’s gratitude.

He has earned at least 16 grammies, been honored with doctorate degrees from universities all over the world, and has been inducted into several halls of fame, and as he thanks the Lord for his life in every show, it’s hard not to feel some of that glowing gratitude flowing from his fingers as he plays. Says BB:

“I got a chance to ride today on a very nice bus and from my window I can see how beautiful this country is and how nice it is to be alive and that to me is like extra vitamins.”  

Gratitude is one of the fruits gained from hard work and persistence in the face of opposition.  It is gratitude that makes the blues something more than sad songs, but beautiful expressions of longing. Again, from BB:

And everybody wanna know

Yes, they wanna know

Why I'm singing the blues

Yes, I've been around a long, long time

Yes, I've really, really paid my dues

It is the constant, unfazed exercise of our God-given gifts that works a transformation in our character—one that turns the blues into thanksgiving.  As BB sings it, we know he is not sad, but deeply, profoundly grateful for his life.  We have much to learn from B.B. King—chiefly the virtue of persistence in the midst of opposition and mistreatment, whereby our loving Lord can make wings of our crutches, badges of our bruises, and words of profound praise out of our every longing prayer.

   May we, the folks of First Pres Upland, know those same depths of gratitude as we persist in serving the Lord, growing in Him and making Him known!