Two Bens

We were watching Cuba Gooding Jr. in a movie at the weekend and it reminded me of a new movie he’s in which then got me thinking about whether we’d ever mentioned one of the stories that inspired Ben from an early age.

When Ben was eight or nine I guess, he discovered a book called “Gifted Hands”. An autobiography written by an Afro-American called Ben Carson. It is a story of a boy with a strong belief in God, who has a dream. Despite difficult circumstances, his determination, perseverance and hope motivate him to pursue this dream and he eventually becomes a paediatric neuro-surgeon at Johns Hopkins University.

A young Ben Mulherin was looking for Christian heroes and was encouraged and inspired by this man’s faith and his ‘never give in’ gutsy approach to life’s challenges. He read the two books by Ben Carson several times as he was growing up and when we returned with all our books from Argentina in 2006, he was disappointed to find that “Gifted Hands” had gone missing.

He ordered a new copy for himself and read it again shortly before he became sick in June 2008. Ben Carson’s contribution to paediatric nuerosurgery and the stories of lives saved and changed in his books played a part at least, I believe, in Ben Mulherin deciding to study medicine.

So back to the first paragraph of this blog: Ben Carson’s story has recently been made into a movie called, not surprisingly “Gifted Hands” and Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Ben Carson. The movie is very interesting; worth a look.

Lindy