There are people who have been born into this
world who accomplish great things. They become great leaders of nations,
inventors of devices to impact all space and time, philosophers whose ideas
move generations to great change, artists whose work touches the souls of many
long after them, evangelists who love God with a passion that brings
generations to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. These are the people we look to as “great” people. People who
impact change. People who are remembered. People with a legacy.
Yet, in comparison to the whole population of
the world, these people are few and far between. Drops in the bucket of
souls. Single planets in a universe of stars. They are not the only ones who matter. The far greater worth
lies in the weaving of the masses. The parents who raised these leaders.
The men and women who impacted their lives in seemingly meaningless ways
at the time. Without the hundreds and thousands of other people in the
world to each impart a seemingly meaningless chapter, sentence, or word to the
lives of these great people, these great people would cease to exist.
We have a grand Creator and Author of all Life
who weaves a story through time with every strand of fabric available.
Although He may choose to emphasize one color over another, in the grand
scheme of the weaving, it is the entire composition, not just that one strand
of color that causes others to take notice.
Are you content to be just another strand in the
Weaver's grand design? Have you realized the importance
of the legacy you live in this lifetime? Do you know you have a legacy to
impart? Something to leave
behind? Something to impart to the
next generation?
The word “legacy” by definition is simply “anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor
or predecessor.” When you dig a
little deeper, you find that in the late 14th century, the word legacy was used to refer to “a body of
persons sent on a mission.” It
also originates from the word legatus meaning
“ambassador or envoy.”
These words—mission,
ambassador, envoy—are strong and powerful. Legacy is not just a bunch of hand-me-down things,
possessions; earthly treasures that moths and rust destroy and thieves break in
and steal. The legacy a person
leaves behind is found in the lives of the people they impacted. Their legacy, albeit good or bad, is
left behind in the people who knew them, who loved or hated them, whose lives
were/are never the same because of them.
Jesus Christ left His legacy
ingrained in the lives of twelve men, twelve disciples. He touched both physically and
spiritually the lives of thousands, but it was the twelve who believed, who had
the faith to live His message, these twelve literally took the message of Christ
and physically changed the modern world as we knew it all because of the legacy
of Christ—the time He spent pouring into their lives, the honest relationships
He formed, nurtured, and cared about—this legacy left such an impression that
when Christ’s Spirit filled these men for the first time after His ascension,
they couldn’t contain their joy, their hope, their love for Him. Legacy
matters. The legacy of Christ
matters to people. It changes
their lives. And His legacy
continues to be passed down from generation to generation even today through the
believing lives and words and actions of His followers, His children, His
chosen, His beloved.
Granddaddy Frank was one of
those children. He was a child of
God. He wasn’t perfect—no one
is. But he did the best he could
with what he had, with what he was given.
He raised his boys to honor their parents—I’ve seen that first hand in
the hard light of day over the past twelve days. And when they honor their parents, God is honored and God is
pleased, so I know Granddaddy Frank is a proud parent in the presence of his
heavenly Father today. You see, in
the daily life of honor Granddaddy lived serving his country, serving his
family, serving others—he left behind a legacy of honor for us to carry, to
share, to pass down.
Granddaddy Frank was a man of too many words in
some ways, and not enough words in other ways. Though I never heard him share his faith openly, I still
believe he was a God-fearing man, and his heritage, his legacy, is one of hard
work and high standards. He has
always been a man who has worked hard to provide security for his family,
putting them first and foremost in his priorities. Even in his death, he has left his beloved wife well cared
for in every way, not just financially, but with a family, specifically his
three boys, who love her with a love as endearing as the love he had for her
for 66 years. 66 years!!! Wow, that in itself is a legacy! A mission to take on. A message for us to carry—his
ambassadors, his envoy, his legacy.
He also held the standard for their lives staggeringly
high, some might say, but he was a man who lived his life by trying to always
do the right thing.
Inevitably, that belief did not get him to heaven, but I believe he now
stands in the presence of the Lord of all Right Things, and in his own solemn
way, Granddaddy honored Jesus Christ as Lord during his days here with us. We may have never heard him confess
Christ with his mouth, although my dad, Stan, assures me he had that
conversation with him once, but the actions of his life confessed Jesus as
Lord—the way he provided, the way he gave, the way he never took the wide path,
but always chose the narrow—these are proofs of Christ in him.
Granddaddy Frank’s heritage is honorable, one of
honor and worth remembering and regarding when the easy way out looks so
tempting. That’s his legacy. These are all the “things” we as
his children, his grandchildren, his family, and friends—these are the “things”
we are responsible to pass on to others in our lives. It’s these godly morals—the pictures of Christ found in his
daily life that are worth remembering and engraving into our lives.
No man is perfect. No man leaves this world without leaving behind words left
unsaid, feelings that need mended, old wounds in need of healing. Granddaddy Frank was no exception. But it’s important to remember also
that no man can offer those words or
that healing. Only God offers
the healing grace and forgiveness and salvation we all need from these
things. Only a daily relationship
with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is a salve strong enough to soothe
the hurt this life can bring, and it’s because of the saving faith Granddaddy
Frank had in our Lord Jesus Christ that he stands before Him this day, in His
holy presence with clean hands and a clean heart because the blood of Christ
covers us all if we only believe in Him, in His sacrifice, in the legacy He
died to impart.
Because of Granddaddy’s faith in Christ, all the
good he lived outweighed anything bad.
Because his life was lived for Christ in the best way he knew how, the
legacy he leaves for us—honor, commitment, hard work, love and loyalty for and
to family, perseverance, determination, setting high standards—this is the
legacy he has left to us his ambassadors and envoys, the ones who have now inherited
his mission.
Some of Granddaddy’s last words to me when I was
talking to him in the hospital were to “Move on. Move on. Move
on.” He was telling me to stop
stressing and questioning over some recent health issues. It was wasted emotional energy. His advice was to move on. And so as one of his ambassadors of his
legacy, as one of his envoys carrying a message of hope and perseverance, and
as his granddaughter passing down his legacy to his great-grandchildren, I will
do just that. I will commit to
carry all the good and right and pleasing and excellent and praiseworthy things
he left behind to me with me on this mission of life.
Because
all the good and excellent and right and praise-worthy things about his life
are all reflections of our shared heavenly Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, we live and move and have our
being—Granddaddy just gets to do it in the Lord’s own presence on a daily basis
while we still have to struggle in this sinful flesh. One day, one day, all of us who have confessed with our
mouths that Jesus is Lord and believed in our hearts that God raised Him from
the dead—one day all of us will join Granddaddy in the sweet eternal freedom he
is experiencing. Even at the early
age of 32, my heart aches for that day.
To be able to love my Savior untainted and unimpeded—no barriers. Just Christ. Christ alone.
I love you Granddaddy. We all love you.
So I will leave each of you with this question…from this day forward, in
what manner will you carry the legacy that Granddaddy Frank leaves?
Some may need to commit yourself to an entire
lifetime of marriage to the same person from this day forward, working hard to
make it work, never giving up, choosing to stay committed no matter what.
Others may need to resolve to embrace his legacy
of hard work and perseverance, never taking the easy path just because it’s
easy.
Some may need to learn to honor the authorities
in their life with more respect and loyalty, remembering it is God who ordains
all our authorities in our lives including our parents for His purposes.
For others, you may need to start raising the
standards you set for yourself a little higher, stop resting in empty excuses
for everything.
Still others may simply need to nail it down and
come to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
My only challenge is that you embrace something,
engrave at least one piece of his legacy into your life. Don’t leave here today simply burying a
good man. Leave today deciding to
emulate a piece if not the whole legacy of this godly man because one day we
will all be at this stage of life, and we will be hoping that our legacy
matters to those we leave behind, that we’ve made a difference in the lives of
our ambassadors in this lifetime.
In the words of Granddaddy, “Move on!” from here today not saddened by
the loss, but encouraged by the gift we’ve all inherited, challenged by the
mission for which we’ve been commissioned, to not just pass down Granddaddy’s
legacy, but to live it, to be it—to be the Jesus that this generation
sees. This will make Granddaddy
proud. Do this, and I can still
see him smiling down on us from heaven, little corner of his mouth raised, and
eyes shining.
2 Corinthians 5:20 implores: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God
were making an appeal (to others—to the world) through us; we beg you on behalf
of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
Go. Be the legacy.
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