Covenant Presbyterian Church

Rarely in the history of the world have so many wasted so much time watching the scandalous, vacuous lives of celebrities, politicians, intellectuals, and preachers. As our daily lives have been emptied of significance beyond transitory pleasure, we view theirs with envy and longing, thinking that we would be complete if we could only have a portion of their wealth, fame, intelligence, or beauty. We avidly read their biographies, watch their tabloid exploits, and vicariously live through them. Even if we are not completely paralyzed by this destructive fantasy and somehow summon up the energy to go about our own business, work hard, and provide for our families, our expectations and sense of satisfaction are often tragic reflections of the consumerist agenda set by these so-called elites. Thus, we follow the pretenders - pretenders to happiness, to relevance, to power. They are truly pathetic. To the degree that we follow them, we are more pathetic.

Then jaundice. We become unable to see the beauty around us, to distinguish that which only has the appearance of attractiveness from that which truly satisfies, to discern the good from the evil. Our appetite for virtue and courage departs. So ill are we that those who lead truly imitable lives no longer attract us. In fact, we suspect them of hiding something insidious. When they walk in the old paths of faith, family, and fidelity, we conclude that there must be something wrong with them. I suggest that their lives convict us of having low and carnal aims and of being unbelievably selfish and shortsighted. Rather than face the truth about ourselves, our shallow distractedness, we hide under a cloak of self-deception. We would rather have the cotton-candy of secularism than chew the tough meat of reality.

But a healthy appetite can be recovered. Our illness need not be fatal. Others have lived in similar and worse times than we, yet they have somehow maintained their integrity and sense of higher purpose. They have not followed the agenda of the deluded but have led contented, simple lives of faith and love. Such men and women live among us today. Their lives are usually unheralded. They never make appearances on television for they do nothing salacious or scandalous. In fact, their lives are so insignificant, so mundane to a desensitized and distracted culture, that they usually live and die among us without attracting any significant attention. Such a person was my grandmother, Frances Wells.

From my childhood, I watched her work: cooking family dinners, growing a garden, holding down various jobs, and ministering to those in her church. She never asked for and rarely received any accolades. Aside from an occasional trip, she hardly left East Point, the sleepy little burg in which she spent the majority of her life. I always saw a Bible on her coffee table. Until the infirmities of old age prevented her, she rarely missed a worship service. On the occasions I spoke with her about issues of faith, she always affirmed her trust in the blood of her Savior, Jesus Christ. In God’s providence, she was never blessed with a great deal of teaching on these matters, but what she heard from preachers and read for herself in Scripture, she believed. I will not canonize her, for the temptation is always great to make men better in death than they were in life. In my mind, though, "Granny" requires no hagiography to value her life, to learn from it, and to thank God that the memory of the just is always blessed, while the name of the wicked will rot (Proverbs 10:7).

As I watched her die last night, I thought of her simple life - no new cars, a little house, a fixed income. Yet holding her withered hand, I wondered about the hands she had held, the tears she had wiped, including my own, and the help she had given to so many. I think now about the outwardly better lifestyle I enjoy, the better teaching God in his providence has seen fit to provide me in his mercy, and the many opportunities to serve others he has granted. With all this, I would not be here without Granny’s love and example. I am reminded of Scripture’s warning: "Though I have all knowledge and understand all mysteries, if I have not love, it profits me nothing." Our Savior said: "By this all men will know you are my disciples, that you love one another." The world does not need men who love without content other than sentiment and the dangerous canons of universal tolerance; this has given us a social gospel vacated of significance beyond humanitarianism. The lost world does not need arrogant defenders of truth without love. It requires at this dark hour men and women in whose heart the double fire of divine truth and self-denying love blazes with power and sincerity. I pray that my heavenly Father will give me grace to build upon my grandmother’s love, couple it with his marvelous truth, and thus be used to glorify his name and do lasting good to others.
Watching her breathe with difficulty, I thought of her hope in the resurrection, that though the outward man perishes, the inner man, the man renewed in the image of God through faith in Jesus Christ, is being renewed day by day. She talked a great deal about heaven in her final months, wanting to go "home." She has arrived. I wait. There is still more for me to do before I am called to my accounting and to my inheritance in Jesus Christ. I pray that I will do as much with what God has given me as she did. A man is not measured by what he does not have, but by what he has (2 Corinthians 8:12). This is where I find such joy in her death, that one of Christ’s precious sheep now looks upon his beautiful face and awaits the final consummation of blessedness. There is no comfort in death apart from this hope. There may be relief that suffering is over. But without Christ, earthly suffering gives way to eternal misery. I praise God for his grace and encourage you to ground your hope upon the only foundation that will survive: a crucified, resurrected, reigning Savior.
In the hours after her death, I thought about her life in the light of what is said about our Savior: "He went about doing good" (Acts 10:38). Granny delayed marriage for several years so that she could raise her younger siblings after her parents died. She took care of me when I was an infant so that my mother could be with my father after he returned from Vietnam. I remember several occasions when her home became a refuge from winter storms after our power had gone out. How hospitable she was! How she cheered others with her infectious laugh and innumerable instances of kindness. Even with this, however, Granny did not rest her hope of heaven upon the fact that she had done these things. She believed in him who went about doing good for her salvation. And so must you, for God does not grade on a curve, and if you try to arrive at heaven upon the basis of your own works, you will be exposed. The only righteousness that avails is the gift of God’s own righteousness that is given to us through his Son, Jesus Christ. Going about doing good, as Granny did, is profitable only if it is a life of obedience and service motivated by love for him, thankfulness for his mercy, in imitation of our Savior.
Granny’s life was relatively insignificant. The life of quietness, simplicity, and obscurity she led is not only distasteful to many, it is rapidly becoming a nostalgic reference in history books. We move fast to cover our emptiness, filling our lives with activities to mask the vacuum created by existentialism, with music to drown out the silence, with movies to live vicariously through others. Yet, there is a different and more significant life - an unheralded life of faith, loving service, and hope in Jesus Christ. This is the life God heralds. We can live it again by his power, by faith in Jesus Christ, in daily communion with the Lord of glory.

What sort of life are you leading? Are you constantly looking for that lucky strike, the lottery draw that will solve all your problems, given you the wealth you think you need, the beauty, the fame, the popularity? Or, are you standing, believing, and serving where God has placed you? Child of God, do not fall into the bottomless pit of our society’s frantic pursuit of that ever illusive and inevitably unsatisfying "magic event" that will change your life. You will waste your life if you do. Jesus Christ alone can change your life. He makes even an insignificant life a powerful testimony to his marvelous grace.