legacy

The Legacy of Little Things

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“A river touches places of which its source knows nothing, and Jesus says if we have received of His fullness, however small the visible measure of our lives, out of us will flow the rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

That’s it. Your seemingly insignificant little life could be the ripple in the pond that affects the world. Your small random acts of kindness might leave a legacy that will outlast you.

Mother Teresa once said that there are no great acts but only small acts done with great love. Even your sheer optimism and dogged determination in dealing with the daily drudgeries can have an impact on people that you may never meet in this lifetime.

People are watching. People notice. For better or worse, how you act and how you react will inform others on how much you really believe what you profess. Your life may be the only Bible that some will ever read.

While that could be daunting on one hand, on the other, it’s a reminder that no good deed done out of faith is ever in vain. Your life, small and trivial as it seems, matters.

One day, someone might just tell you. It will most likely be someone you never would have suspected even knew you existed. There could be ten others who you will never meet but whose lives will be just as changed by your faithfulness in the trivialities and details.

My cat snoring is a sign telling me I’d better wrap this up quickly. Ultimately, you being as true to who God made you to be and being faithful where God puts you is as powerful a testimony as any of the dramatic conversions out there.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

 

What Will Your Verse Be?

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memorable-robin-williams-quotes_that-you-may-contribue-a-verse

As you probably surmised, I saw Dead Poets Society tonight. I’d seen it before but never on a big screen. It was just as inspiring and endearing as the other times I’d seen it, perhaps even more this time.

That line keeps reverberating in my head– “What will your verse be? ”

So, what will your verse be? How will you contribute to this powerful play that you’re a part of? What will people remember you for after you’re gone?

Far more than an inheritance, what you can leave your loved ones is a lasting legacy. They can follow the example you set by not just making a living but making a difference as well.

I don’t know how this will play out for you, but I do know that if you want your life to matter, you have to be intentional about how you will live your days and not just eek out an existence.

It’s all about carpe diem– seizing that day.

We Can Be Heroes

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“Everyday a champion dies. We only hear about the popular entertainers.” A friend of mine posted that comment on one of my posts about how many celebrities we’ve lost so far in 2016.

It does seem to me that a disproportionate number of famous people have died this year as compared with previous years. It also seems like just as we’re getting over the shock of losing one, another passes away.

But think of this. Every single day, unsung heroes pass into eternity. They may not have sold millions of records or grossed billions of dollars on box office receipts. They may not be household names or have instantly recognizable faces. Still, their names are in the lamb’s book of life and their faces reflect the glory of God.

They are mother and fathers. They are grandmothers and grandfathers. They are Sunday School teachers. They are Scout troop leaders. They can be next-door neighbors.

They are the ones quietly influencing the world around them and changing the lives of those they encounter. They are the ones who live out the gospel daily with words and deeds.

They are the ones whose life and deeds will most likely go largely unnoticed by the world but who will receive the best accolade of all with the words “Well gone, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.”

They are the ones whom future generations will rise up and call blessed. They are the ones whose legacy of faithfulness will live on long after they and their names have been forgotten.

I’ve known a few of these that have profoundly impacted who I am today. I can recall a grandmother, a piano teacher, a few Sunday School teachers, and so many more who have gone from this world but who still live on in the lives they radically influenced.

I truly believe that ultimately the real heroes aren’t the ones making music and movies or writing books. They are the ones who are faithful with what they’ve been given where they’ve been planted with the people God has entrusted to them.

Those are the real heroes.

 

Congrats, Peyton Manning

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Alright, I confess. I was slightly rooting for the Carolina Panthers to win Super Bowl 50. Nothing personal against you. I just felt like they were the better team. Plus, they had the kid from The Blind Side playing for them. It felt like the Christian thing to do.

Still, I also have to confess that I’ve admired you through your entire career, starting out at the University of Tennessee to the Indianapolis Colts and finally to the Denver Broncos.

You always have done everything and carried yourself with utmost class. You always have won the right way– by working hard and playing by the rules. You exemplified your Christian faith without using it as a bully pulpit to shame others.

I don’t know if tonight will go down as your swan song. It’d be nice to see you end your playing career as Super Bowl 50 champion. Still, that is totally your call. You are the only one who knows when it’s the right time to call it a career.

If this is the last rodeo for you, I wanted to be one of the first to thank you for leaving a legacy of class that I hope will be followed by not just future quarterbacks in the NFL, but by all professional athletes in their respective sports.

I love the way you’ve exemplified the truth that it really isn’t ultimately about winning or losing but how you play the game and why you play it. You always have played it for the love of the game and it has always showed. You have earned the respect not only of your fellow players and coaches but also of the opposing players and coaches.

No matter the outcome of the game, whether you had won or lost (and I am glad that you won), I would have considered you a winner either way. All this comes from a non-UT fan who grew up in West Tennessee supporting the other state college.

Thanks, and may you one day buy the Titans and run their organization right. I can dream, can’t I?

 

Family Bible

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“There’s a family Bible on the table each page is torn and hard to read
But the family Bible on the table will ever be my key to memories
At the end of day when work was over and when the evening meal was done
Dad would read to us from the family Bible
And we’d count our many blessings one by one
I can see us sittin’ round the table when from the family Bible dad would read
I can hear my mother softly singing rock of ages rock of ages cleft for me” ( P. Buskirk, W. Breeland, C. Gray).

I’m reading through the New English Bible this year. I picked it up at McKay’s Used Books, Movies, Music (and Everything Else Your Nerdy Little Heart Could Possibly Desire).

This Bible previously belonged to Jo Ann Hardin, who received it as a gift on September 5, 1975. She was married to Robert Allen Hardin on March 13, 1954 by the Rev. Cecil Ewell. They had four children.

She was good about taking notes and marking favorite passages in her Bible, and I benefit from it. I love to see what verses spoke to her and what struck her out of a sermon she heard on any given Sunday.

My mother has underlined and dated verses for years. If a given verse speaks to her or relates to her current circumstances, she highlights it and writes the date in the margins. That’s a good way to go back and see how God has been speaking through the years. After all, we are so very prone to forget.

I love how God doesn’t leave it to each new generation to figure out the faith-life. He provides the example of the preceding generations, the “cloud of witnesses,” to show us how it’s done.

I hope one day to pass a Bible on to some future generation to carry on the legacy of the Family Bible.

 

Looking for the Pause Button

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Sometimes, I wish life had a remote control, like in that Adam Sandler movie where he fast-forwards through the boring parts of his life.

Only I wouldn’t be looking for the fast-forward button. I’d want to pause my life.

Today, I went to the funeral of a friend’s dad. I hadn’t seen or talked to him in a long time, but I remember him as being a quiet, gentle man who loved his God and his family and who also happened to own the first PC that I had ever seen.

I saw him lying in the coffin, looking like a perfect wax replica of a person. Then I remembered that I was looking not at the man, but at the shell. The moment he breathed his last he was instantly in the presence of Jesus, fully alive and healthy and happy.

I heard where two Briarcrest students who were set to embark on their senior year of high school died Friday at the hands of a drunk driver who had four DUIs in the last five years.

There’s too much sadness and loss in the world. Too many people had to say goodbye to the ones they loved, while more than that never got the chance.

I sense more than ever how precious and fleeting this life is. I understand more how important it is never to take anyone in your life for granted.

I’m thinking about the quote from the movie The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel– “There’s no present like the time.”

I recall a pastor who said that at best this life is like a clean bus station. You don’t set up a bedroom suite and move all your belongings into a Greyhound terminal, because it’s only a stop along the way toward your final destination.

This life is so brief because this is not our final destination. Heaven is. As much as I keep forgetting, as much as I want that pause button to work, I know that I can’t stop that second hand from racing clockwise toward another tomorrow.

I can only choose to live each moment fully and to be fully present to every person in every place at every moment that I’m given. I can know that in God’s economy nothing is ever wasted and the good a person does follows after them. Your legacy will far outlive you and in the end, it won’t be what you did for a living or who you knew, but who you were and what you did with what God gave you.

 

Family Reunions

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image

My cousin posted a picture on Instagram that got me thinking. It was a picture taken of the extended family gathered together, all smiles and laughter.

It made me think back to all those family reunions we used to have back in the day. I so enjoyed seeing those people, many of whom I only saw that one day a year.

Looking back, I have one regret. Why didn’t I get to know these people better when I had the chance? Why did I wait until it was too late?

I think everyone who has ever lost a close loved one will feel like they took their loved one for granted to some degree, that they left words unspoken or good deeds undone.

I look at this picture and I see a lot of people who aren’t around anymore. So many that I miss. If I only had some kind of time machine to go back, even if It were only like watching an old home movie. That would be enough.

You think you will have enough time with those you love. You won’t. You think that if they live a good long life, their passing won’t hurt as much. It will.

All you have is the time you’re given. All you have is today, as the old Robert Earl Keen song goes. Every moment you spend with a loved one now is one less regret you’ll have tomorrow.

Don’t think that I have only sad memories. The majority of the feelings that come from this picture are happy ones. Good ones. I feel like I grew up in a family with a long legacy of love, laughter, honor, and faith. I was (and still am) very blessed.

Thank you, Chris

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hands

“God of love,
we thank you that Chris is in your gentle and loving hands,
far from the cruelty, violence and pain of our world.
When the trouble was near,
we could not understand how you seemed
to remain far away.
And yet it is to you we turn;
for in life and death
it is you alone whom we can trust,
and yours alone is the love that holds us fast.
We find it hard to forgive the deed
that has brought us so much grief.
But we know that, if life is soured by bitterness,
an unforgiving spirit brings no peace.
Lord, save us and help us.
Strengthen in us the faith and hope that Chris
is freed from the past with all its hurt,
and rests for ever in the calm security of your love,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
All
Amen.”

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you for being a good son, husband, and father.

Thank you for leaving behind a legacy of undying love and unquenchable faith.

Thank you for inspiring me with the way you lived out your faith even in dying, to the very last moments when Jesus called you home.

Thank you for your words of encouragement to me and thinking of me when what you were going through was a million times worse than anything I’ve faced.

You’ve inspired me to be kinder and more patient with those in my life.

You’ve reminded me to hug my friends and family as often as I can and to say, “I love you” whenever I get the chance.

You’ve compelled me to not take tomorrow for granted, but to seek forgiveness and reconciliation today while there is still time.

I and so many others are better people and more in loved with Jesus for having known you.

I know at this moment Jesus has you tightly gripped in a great big ol’ bear hug as He whispers in your ear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Attaboy, Chris!”

Thank you, Chris.

” I know your life
On earth was troubled
And only you could know the pain
You weren’t afraid to face the devil
You were no stranger to the rain

Go rest high on that mountain
Son, your work on earth is done
Go to heaven a shoutin’
Love for the Father and Son

Oh, how we cried the day you left us
We gathered round your grave to grieve
I wish I could see the angels faces
When they hear your sweet voice sing

Go rest high on that mountain
Son, your work on earth is done
Go to heaven a shoutin’
Love for the Father and Son” (Vince Gill)

Tangible Memories

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I have my grandfather’s old radio. It sat on his workbench for years and kept him entertained while he tinkered and puttered around in his garage.

Now it sits in my bedroom, a tangible reminder of someone that I loved who is gone but not forgotten.

It’s more than a collection of old tubes and dials and wiring. It’s like a piece of my grandfather is here with me, even though my grandfather has been gone almost 30 years.

I hope one day to leave a legacy like that to someone. I hope that the words I have written or spoken, the things I have done, will inspire someone else to go out and make a difference, to do what most other people say can’t be done.

The radio still works. It takes a minute or two for the tubes to warm up, but after that it sounds as good as it ever did. Legacies are funny that way.