How Will They Remember Me?

The past couple of days, I saw something incredible happen. Between the visitation and funeral for Dennis Lowe, I saw a reflection of the type of legacy EVERY person should strive to leave. I read about big funerals, big visitations, etc, all the time. But for the first time I saw it play out in reality. The line for the visitation stretched way down the sidewalk and past at least a couple of buildings next to the funeral home. A two hour visitation turned into over four hours. The funeral packed our church, plus the foyers, plus overflow rooms in the choir room and across the street. I got home from a 2:00 funeral at 6:15 after going to the graveside and spending a little time with the family after that.

Time and time again, I heard people, including the funeral home director, say they had never seen anything like this, that they had known he knew a lot of people and had a lot of influence, but they were blown away and overwhelmed by what they saw. Many of my youth have already said they were challenged and were re-thinking their own lives a little bit, even at that young of an age. It was such a neat cross-section of life too...church, government, business, civic, and more. All coming together for one common cause, to celebrate a man these many people from many walks of life knew, loved, were impacted by and called friend.

He was far from perfect...but aren't we all? Don't we all struggle with our imperfections? In a way, though, I think that's a big part of what makes us, well, us. That's not an excuse to just go and live however want and not worry about the consequences. It is, however, a reminder to not allow ourselves to become clones of the expectations of and demands of others. A reminder to be who we are, who God has created us to be. A reminder to capture and embrace the life God has given to us, flaws and all, and to give ourselves fully to it. One of the saddest things is a life wasted, a life spent just going through the motions. Dennis Lowe lived the life he was given, and in the process impacted a ton of lives. Even when he knew his illness was terminal and his days were numbered, he accepted the cards he had been dealt and lived those final weeks and days to the fullest.

Before I started ministry life, I had been to maybe 5 or so funerals. In the past 13 years, I'm sure I've been to ten times that amount. A small few have been family, but most have been either people in our church or people related to those in our church. Thirteen years at the same church, you start getting attached to people in a big way. Some of my favorite people in my 36 years of life are people I've met at LFBC. Some of the people I'm closest to in my life are some of the amazing people God has given us at LFBC over the years, including former and current students. A long time ago, I figured out that I wasn't gonna be the best speaker, the most talented communicator, the most gifted energetic fun outgoing out there youth pastor. But I realized that I could make up for a lot of those things with a passion, a legitimate concern and care for people, and an investment in them, their lives, and lasting relationships with them that show them I care and love them and point them to Christ. My dad once made the statement "People won't care how much you know until they know how much you care," and one of my mentors in ministry said "Listening is so much like loving people can't tell a difference." Those statements both stuck with me in powerful ways and became mottos for me as a person and as a minister.

My hope, some day, down the road, is that my life, my legacy, my faith, results in a fraction of the influence I saw one man have this week. I think that's a noble and worthy goal we should all strive for. And lest we all forget we are mortals, as morbid as this sounds, live with an awareness that as you are living, you are dying...each breath wasted is one you can't gain back. Each moment spent on selfish gain or doing nothing is something you can't earn back. Tim McGraw and Kris Allen have songs called "Live Like You (We) Are Dying." Lecrae has a song called "Don't Waste Your Life." Nichole Nordeman has a song called "Legacy" that says, "I wanna leave a legacy, how will they remember me, did I choose to love, did I point to You enough to make a mark on things, I wanna leave an offering, a child of mercy and grace who blessed Your name unapologetically, and leave that kind of legacy." I hope, I pray, we all live in that type of awareness, and we maximize the life and the potential God has given us in the time we have. We owe it to men like Dennis...and more importantly, we owe it to the God who gives us life and breath.