Those who are righteous will be long remembered. … They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. [Psalm 112: 6,9 (NLT)]
Live so that when the final summons comes you will leave something more behind you than an epitaph on a tombstone or an obituary in a newspaper. [Billy Sunday]
More than thirty years ago, a friend confided that she wanted her obituary to be a good one. A few years ago, explaining that she wanted an updated photo in case it was needed for her obituary, she asked me to take her picture. Although she was in excellent health at the time, this woman clearly understood the fragility of life. Sadly, she died unexpectedly just a few days ago.
When considering a “legacy,” we usually think in monetary terms, but a legacy can be anything given by or received from an ancestor, predecessor, or the past. It’s the body of work we leave behind when we’re gone and, in actuality, my friend was far more concerned with leaving a legacy of service and love than with the words of her obituary! She wasn’t trying to impress others, pad her resume with good works, or serve her way into heaven. A woman of deep faith, she knew she was saved by grace not works. Nevertheless, she served the Lord she loved by loving and serving His people. Although she’d expressed concern about some of her denomination’s doctrine, she had no doubts about Jesus. The Holy Spirit was present in her life and she never missed an opportunity to be a blessing to others.
My friend was no saint—she was just another imperfect Christ follower struggling to make it through each day the best she could. Her life wasn’t easy and she had more than her share of heartbreak and disappointment. Nevertheless, as her obituary read, “She began and ended each day with the intent of making people smile and laugh. She accomplished that every day of her life. … In her wake, she left a trail of smiles, heartfelt laughter and love.” Indeed, the world was a better place because of her and, as she had hoped, her obituary was filled with glowing words and the picture was a recent one. Her obituary’s words, however, will soon be forgotten. It is the humble way she served her neighbor and the seeds of faith, love, and joy she scattered wherever she went that will live on in the many lives she touched.
Our true legacy has nothing to do with wills, trusts, bank accounts or property titles; it begins with our relationship with God and ends with our relationship to His children. What we leave behind when we’re gone is determined by how we choose to live today! Do you want to be remembered with a long obituary or a legacy of love?
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. [Augustine]
In an attempt to avoid the day’s heat, I went walking immediately after breakfast, leaving the bed unmade and the dishes on the counter. Thinking I would tend to the bedroom and kitchen later in the day, I cleaned the lanai when I returned home. Just as I was finishing up, the gate house called: I had unexpected guests! One of my visitors is a “neatnik” and nothing about me or the house (except for the lanai) was neat or clean. In the few minutes between the gate’s call and their arrival, I managed to pull up the bedspread, throw the dishes in the sink, wipe the counter, slip on a fresh t-shirt, put on lipstick and don a baseball cap. I was thankful for the advance call that gave me just enough time to make things semi-presentable.
A.W. Tozer’s words remind me of Jesus’s parable about the Pharisee and tax collector who prayed in the Temple. Acting as if God should feel grateful to receive his prayers, the Pharisee didn’t understand that he should be grateful that God listens! Rather than express thanks for God’s righteousness, power and majesty, the proud Pharisee thanked God for his own righteousness and then listed his virtues! Although it wasn’t required, he fasted twice weekly and was so fastidious about tithing that he tithed not just what was earned but also anything he acquired. If he were unsure that a farmer had tithed his produce, the Pharisee would tithe it again! Standing before God and proclaiming both his good works and his contempt for others (like the tax collector), the Pharisee is a perfect illustration of a man “who believes that he is worthy of heaven.” How wrong he was! Perhaps the Pharisee’s refusal to recognize his own self-righteousness was his biggest sin of all.
A few weeks ago, in Charles Schultz’s classic comic Peanuts, Snoopy sat on his doghouse and decided not to tell his little bird friend Woodstock about Santa Claus. “He’ll never get any presents anyway. Santa Claus never brings presents to tiny, nondescript, nobody birds,” he thought before concluding, “It’s kind of sad at Christmastime to be a nobody bird.” I wasn’t so sure about Santa ignoring the “nobody birds.” The previous day, several from our church had participated in a project that demonstrated just how much “Santa” really does care.
Cutting in and out of traffic, the sports car sped around us and raced through a red light. A few minutes later, we saw it pulled off to the side of the road with a policeman at the driver’s side window. While the driver deserved the ticket, what happened was not karma. Nevertheless, when seeing someone suffer the consequences of their bad behavior, people often say, “It was karma—what goes around comes around!” Granted, what goes around often comes back around but the word “karma” is not a word that should be in our Christian vocabulary.
John Wesley had an excellent alternative to making a New Year’s resolution that’s unlikely to be kept. Believing that Christians should reaffirm their covenant with God, in 1755, he introduced a covenant service to the Methodist Societies. By 1775, this service was usually held on New Year’s Eve (and called a Watch Night Service) or New Year’s Day. This was a service of renewal in which believers would gather for self-examination and reflection and then renew their covenant with God by dedicating themselves wholly to Him. The practice of a covenant renewal service held on the Sunday nearest January 1st continues in some Methodist churches today and is a practice that has crossed denominational lines.
