My legacy: What will be left when I'm gone?
- Being remembered for a passionate devotion to God and
a rejection of complacency in religious practice is a good end-of-life legacy.
- Loving and valuing the church as a community of faith is
important in contrast to the idea that church involvement is an optional addition to one's
beliefs.
- People should embrace a simpler lifestyle in which they also encourage others to prioritize
generosity and ministry over material possessions and financial burdens.
Reflections published in the campus newspaper
My 90-year-old father-in-law -- Paul Reed -- died one Saturday morning. The next Tuesday I
conducted his funeral in the sanctuary of Bethany (OK) First Church of the Nazarene. [
more on my father-in-law ]
Having to put together a funeral service and prepare a sermon for it has made me think a lot
about what I want to be remembered for.
What kind of legacy do I want to leave? To be sure, I probably have a few years left.
However, when the time comes and I'm gone, what will people remember about me? Or, even
more than that, what kind of influence do I hope will remain in those people who crossed paths
with me?
Here are some random thoughts thatwent through my mind as I prepared for that funeral
service:
- I hope that part of my legacy would be a passion for living for
God. The danger on a campus like ours is that of surrendering
to going through the motions. There's a great temptation to becoming a practical deist in which
no real thought is given to God and spiritual matters during the week and worship is relegated to
an hour on those Sunday mornings when one does manage to attend a church service.
- I hope that part of my legacy would be a consuming love for the church as a community
of faith (rather than something we always complain about because it doesn't "meet my
needs.") To many people, being a part of a church is an optional extra for the believer. It's not.
Scripture says we have been put into the church by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13, 18, 24).
To not love the church -- or worse, to turn one's back on the church -- is in direct opposition to
God's will.
- I hope there will be a love for the wonderful mosaic of cultures and peoples inhabiting
our planet. The human tendency is to turn inward and become very ethnocentric. I hope
part of my legacy is helping people respect and even esteem cultural differences.
- I hope people who cross paths with me would wind up living a more
simple lifestyle rather than continuing on their path of buying the most
expensive car they can afford, living in the biggest house they think they can afford, and wearing
the most lavish clothes they can afford. I would hope that a decision to live more simply would
allow them to channel more resources to ministries of evangelism and compassion. I have
friends who make good salaries but who are so deep in car payments, house payments, and loan
payments (for Christmas presents, for vacations and for furniture) that they find it difficult to
scrape up $50 to give to a needy friend. It shouldn't be like that!
- I hope that my legacy would include a burden for reaching lost people around the globe,
especially those in the least-evangelized societies. There are still people on this earth who
will have no chance of hearing any of the Good News unless new missionary efforts are launched
to reach them. I hope people will catch a glimpse of how God's heart is burdened for these lost
peoples.
Thank you, ARMM
Note written for the newsletter of the Nazarene Association of Retired Ministers and
Missionaries based in Bethany, OK
Half a century or so ago, Barbara and I said goodbye to fellow ministry students at college
graduation and then four years later at seminary graduation time. We had no idea we would wind
up in our retirement living in the same metro area with many of those former classmates. ARMM
has given us the opportunity to reconnect with them.
We were idealistic back then. Not all of our lofty dreams came true. We didn't accomplish
for the Kingdom all that we had hoped to. Our paths took twists and turns we never anticipated.
However, the ideals we cherished then remain valid today and, at ARMM, we celebrate each
other's faithfulness
We also mourn those who dropped out along the way. Some let other alluring voices drown
out the call. Some allowed sin to take root and flourish and destroy. We mourn the trail of
broken ordination vows left by some of our classmates.
Still, in the middle of the sweet and the bitter -- the warm camaraderie of those finishing the
race together and the sad memory of others who should have been here -- we join Andrae Crouch
in singing, "Through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus . . . I've learned to depend upon His
Word."
-- Howard Culbertson
Other ECHO
articles: Jesus and cussing
A perspective on Lent
Lessons from Italy
10/40
Window explanation and map Searching for
God's will? African martyr's commitment
Mission trip fundraising
10 ways to ruin your mission trip
Nazarene Missions International resources