SOMETHING THAT I LEARNED A FEW YEARS AGO?


The other day I watched a movie call "get low".  It stared Robert Duvall who is one of my favorite actors.  If you have not seen the movie,  it's about an old hermit that is getting old and is concerned with what people will say about him and how he will be remembered after he dies.  So what he does is give himself a funeral while he is still alive.

 Have you ever wondered how you will be remembered after you die?  Now be honest.  No one else can hear your answer.  If I ask myself that question, and am totally honest with myself,  the answer would be yes.  I have wondered.  I have seven grand children and have often wondered what they will tell their kids and grand kids about me in 50 years.  I would like for my memory to last longer than that, but I figure somewhere around 50 years is about the max for most of us.  After that long, my hope of any memories of me, if there are any, will be recorded in a book somewhere.  If the memory of you happens to be  longer than that, chances are you were either a really really good person or a really really bad person, and even then most information about you will be second hand.

A while back I started looking up some history about the Daniell family.  Genealogy they call it.  There are some pretty interesting fact about my ancestors.  The first Daniell in America was a man named Robert Daniell.  He was a governor of South Carolina and of North Carolina.   He lived in Charleston and Daniel Island is named after him.  There is much more information about him I may share later.  Another ancestor of  mine was David Daniell.  He was sent  by Baptist State Convention to start a mission church in the  tiny railroad town called Atlanta.  This mission grew to be The First Baptist Church of Atlanta.  The old covered bridge on Concord Road was also built by an ancestor of mine.  I have always been told my Grandfather's family was the fifth family to settle in Mableton.  My grandfather, Arthur Daniell, told me they moved to Mableton from Marietta in a wagon and it took them three days to move.  That was in 1883.  To me these are pretty impressive things to know, but most of this I have found in books or on the Internet.  Not by word of mouth or by stories passed down by the family.  I wonder if Robert or David or Arthur Daniell ever wondered how they would be remembered?

As I was thinking about how I would be remembered, it came to my mind about a lady I had known.  A lady that was one of the best Christian ladies I have ever known.  A lady that was one of the sweetest people I have ever met.  Her name was Jo Ann Queen and she was called home to be with the Lord, to my way of thinking, at far to young of age.  Of course the Lord called her home so I know it was the right time.  It came to my mind about a funeral Peggy and I went to.  I don't remember if it was Jo Ann's father or her husband's father's funeral.  What I do remember was that the church was way back in the north Georgia mountains.  I remember the little country church was full and some people had on suits that cost several hundred dollars and some were dressed in overalls and had just come out of the fields.  It was a little church that had been built in 1948.  I remember the year because it was the year I was born.  I ask Jo Ann if this was the church she grew up in and she said it was.  She said it still looked the same as it always had.  I asked her if it had grown in membership much and she said that it was about the same size as it had always been.  I remember they had a picnic table on the side of the church and when the funeral was over I walked over to the table and set down by myself.  As I sit there I wondered  how many people have driven by this church over the years and thought to themselves,  "This church looks the same as always,  hasn't grown any,  it's a shame it hasn't been successful in reaching the lost." 

But my memory of that little country church is much different.  My memory is of a church that sent a wonderful Christian lady out into the world to spread the Good News.  It prepared her well and I wonder how many others that little church has sent out.  I wonder how many souls have been reached because of that little country church.  In my mind that little church has been very successful.

Years ago when I was a very young boy,  my Daddy gave me some very valuable advice.  He said...."Wes,  If you will keep your eyes wide open everyday.  Look in every direction.  Be observant.  Every day you will see something you have never seen before.  And if you will keep your ears open.  Listening to all the sounds around you.  You will hear something new and beautiful every day.  And Wes,,,If you will learn to keep you mouth shut,  you will learn something every day."

That day at that little country church I learned something new.  I learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different. 

I would wish to be remembered as someone that could see the good in the small things of life.

And he called unto him his disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, This poor widow cast in more than all they that are casting into the treasury: