Last week is a
blur. This week is almost a blur. I know I wrote that a few weeks ago but it is
still true. I had the opportunity to spend Wednesday–Saturday with over 600
students and adults at Super Wow in Toccoa. The camp is held at the Georgia
Baptist Conference Center in north Georgia. We had a great time with great
students, speakers and fun. Superwow has been in existence since 1983. It is a production
of the student ministries of the Georgia Mission Board. Baptists all across
Georgia help support this ministry as well as the conference center in Toccoa. Together
we do this good.
Of course to be gone for a few
days I have to be ahead of my regular weekly duties before I go. That is the
bummer about being an adult. All the preparation to go on a trip and all the
clean-up after you get home. I did not know how good I had it when I was a kid.
I guess none of us really does. We never consider all that went into the trip
that we never see. We never consider the people who paved the way before us
even when they had no idea how they would impact us in the future. As I write
this I am in south Mississippi at the Pabst family home. This legacy thing has
been on my mind these last few days of another whirlwind trip away from home.
We are a product of those who
have come before. Not just our parents but Grands, Great Grands and generations
before that. I would guess those generations before hoped that others in their
line would follow but they did not know for sure. Yet their character has been
instilled genetically into their descendants. We come from their stock and at
the same time are forging our future generations by our character development
and design. That is a legacy.
Of course we want to see that
right now. I think as our lives draw to a close some of those deep fundamental
individual traits surface in the simplest moments. One such moment was etched
into my mind as I spoke to my Mother. She had not been having good days and
been asleep for most of this one when I came into the room. She woke up and proceeded
to ask me questions. How was I? How was Barb? How were Carolyn, Geoffrey, and
Elizabeth? Then she asked how was that teenager? I was confused. I did not know
which teenager she was speaking of. As I sat down it occurred to me she was
asking about Jami Bassett. A student of ours who was in an auto accident, paralyzed
from the waist down and currently in rehab at the Shepherd Center. Mom wanted
to know all of the details as to her condition and recovery. Jami is working
hard and may be released in a few weeks to come home. I was struck by this.
My mother is dying. Hospice is
caring for her and here she wants to know how all of these people are doing.
She even asked about Jami whom I don’t believe Mom has met. She may have met
Jami’s mom Jennifer but I am not sure. I realized in that moment this is the
stock I come from. That is who my Mother is and has been. That’s the example of
loving God and loving others. She has the right to be self-absorbed in her own
situation and some moments is. But, at that moment she was thinking of others.
Maybe there is hope for me yet, her legacy.
In
HIS service and yours,
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