By Jack Wyman

It was a hot and muggy day.

July 4, 1939.

The world stood on the precipice of war.

Yankee Stadium was jam-packed. It was an emotional crowd gathered for an emotional moment. Nearly 62,000 people had come to pay tribute to a great man - a hero, athlete, a ball player who was already a legend.

They called him the Iron Horse of baseball. He had played 2,130 consecutive games - an amazing record that would stand for 56 years. He played first base for the New York Yankees for 17 seasons. He was in six World Series. He hit 493 home runs and batted in 1,995 others.

Before this year was over, he would be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and would be the first player to have his uniform - Number 4 - retired by a team.

Lou Gehrig was the Pride of the Yankees. He was admired for his athletic prowess and beloved for his kindness, generosity and genuine humility. His many fans adored him. He is considered one of the greatest players - and greatest men - to ever step up to the plate.

Two months earlier, at the very prime of his career, Gehrig had suddenly taken himself out of the lineup. He had been struggling at bat and in the field. Soon it was disclosed that he had been diagnosed with a rare and mysterious illness - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It was an incurable neuromuscular disease.

The once graceful and powerful athlete of rare gifts would eventually lose control of his body.

This is the aggressive and unrelenting deteriorative sickness that today bears his name.

The nation was stunned. It grieved and it prayed.

Lou Gehrig was 36. He would die 17 days shy of his 38th birthday.

July 4 was designated Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day. The Mayor of New York was there, along with baseball officials and news reporters. Gehrig’s teammates lined up at home plate behind a battery of microphones. The vast crowd grew still. When the time came, Lou was introduced and stood with his head bowed.

Many in the stands wept.

Gehrig looked up. He rubbed his hand through his thick hair as he gathered his thoughts. He spoke slowly and his voice echoed through the silent stadium.

“For the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break,” he began. “Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

Those words would enter history as some of the most famous, poignant and moving ever uttered by a public figure.

Gehrig proceeded to give thanks for the blessings of his life and career.

He thanked his fans.

“I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.” He said he considered it “a privilege” to play with the Yankees - “fine looking men as they’re standing in uniform in this ballpark today.”

He added:

“Sure, I’m lucky.”

He praised by name the managers and owners he’d known and worked with. Then he said again, “Sure, I’m lucky.” He singled out the New York Giants as worthy competitors, gave thanks for the stadium’s groundskeepers “and those boys in white coats who remember you with trophies - that’s something.”

Lou Gehrig then thanked his family.

“When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it’s a blessing.

When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that’s the finest I know.”

That was it. No wallowing in self-pity, no sadness; no defiance, complaints or recriminations; no regrets.

Just gratitude. Thanksgiving for the blessings God had given him. Thanks for the people who meant so much to him - and to whom he had meant so much.

This simple, self-effacing man of extraordinary greatness and few words, closed with these:

‘So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.”

There weren’t many dry eyes in Yankee Stadium that day.

The next day, The New York Times wrote that “the vast gathering, sitting in absolute silence for a longer period than perhaps any baseball crowd in history, heard Gehrig himself deliver as amazing a valedictory as ever came from a ball player.”

And as fine, as noble, and courageous an example of thankfulness as ever expressed.

As we gather this week with family and friends, we should focus not on what’s wrong but what’s right. Not on what’s bad but what’s good. Not on what needs to change but what still remains.

Not on our problems or pain but on God’s presence and his power.

God tells us we are to be thankful at all times, and in every circumstance. In all things (Ephesians 5:20). No matter what they are.

Our gratitude to him must not be weighed down by despair, or conditions, or demands or caveats. Yes, it is a challenge sometimes. Gratitude takes a concentration of will and energy, an attitude of hope and a heart of confidence.

Being thankful requires the humility to bow before the Giver of all gifts. To acknowledge his mercy and generosity.

In all things.

God has been so very good to you and me. Despite the conditions and problems of our nation in these uncertain times, none of us would want to live anywhere else. No matter what the future holds for any of us, we can thank God for today - for our families, our friends, our health, our freedoms, our homes, our security, our prosperity, our churches, our leaders.

Take time this week to reflect upon the goodness of God. His provision and protection; his guidance and his grace.

Count your blessings.

Give thanks.

In all things.

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