A Legacy Etched in Granite

My Dad passed away in 1999. His long bout with cancer gave him the opportunity to choose what he wanted written on his gravestone. This is what you will read if you come across his place in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier CA:

Nothing in my hand I bring
Simply to thy cross I cling
Toplady

I always thought Toplady was a just a poet, until recently. I read the history behind one of the most famous hymns of all time, “Rock of Ages. I noticed that it was written by a man named Augustus Toplady. The words on the piece of granite over my father’s grave were taken from the second verse of this well-loved hymn. Toplady was a serious young boy, who by age 12 had started preaching sermons on the street. He started writing hymns by age 14, and was ordained in full time ministry at 22. He was a staunch Calvinist, and disliked the Armenian theology preached by the Wesleys in his day of the wrath of God and the fires of hell. The words to the hymn above were from a poem at the end of an article he wrote in 1776 about resting in the sufficiency of God’s forgiveness. His legacy is one of commitment early in life and of writing and speaking out strongly for the truth he believed in.

It is interesting the similarities between my dad and Augustus Toplady, though I am sure the words he chose were based entirely on the merits of the lyrics and not the author’s life. My dad also had a unique name: Leland B. Good. But how fascinating that my father started preaching on the street corners of San Francisco for Youth For Christ when he was only thirteen. He was called into the ministry as a teenager and began his full-time ministry also at age 22. He too was always one to speak up against anyone he felt had gone doctrinally astray. He poured his life into a seven volume commentary on the New Testament as well as numerous doctrinal books, notes, and teachings. He was a modern day Augustus Toplady.

It impacts me when I visit my dad’s grave, staring down at these words timelessly etched in stone, remembering his legacy. He was a man beyond reproach, of the highest standards and impeccable integrity. And he held us, his family, to the same standards, as well as the churches he pastored. Yet his personally chosen epitaph says more about the truth he lived by than the sometimes stark and rigid boundaries he set up within his life. I can see now that along with enforcing uncompromising standards, he embraced unmerited grace. He worked like Wesley, but he rested like Toplady. He understood that in the end, he had no righteousness of his own. I would think that if anyone had a reason to boast in a righteous life, my dad would fall in the top five or ten percent. But as he anticipated his imminent journey to be with his Master, the final self-analysis of his life was of an empty-handed sinner washed by the blood of Jesus, forever indebted to the power of the cross to make him worthy to stand before the Father.

I don’t know what I want on my gravestone. But I hope it will speak as loudly as do the few short words of Augustus Toplady that my dad chose to speak for him to future generations.

Now and Then

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I turn 45 tomorrow. I never did well in math, but that number doubled is a bit higher than the upper-echelon projections of even the most generous life expectancy charts for a white, middle-class American. So I guess I am at mid-life no matter how you cut it. But since they say now that 50 years old is the “new” 40, I guess you could say, in sort of baby-boomer dog years, I am still thirty-something. Well, at least my waist-size still is.

OK, I am supposed to be now in my prime, they say. Just before heading over-the-hill next year in the general direction of a hip-replacement and prostate problems, I would like to just savor the moment here at the top of the mountain and take in a bit of the view. But as I look around, I am not seeing myself sitting at my own book-signing table, or receiving the majority of a church pastoral vote anywhere. Shoot, I haven’t even been the keynote speaker at a conference, sat on the board of an important organization, or been featured on a podcast. My phone doesn’t even ring most of the time, and that from pastors who I have called four or five times. I guess I better contact Verizon and cancel my call-waiting service. Something is wrong with this snapshot.

There are times in a person’s life when they can feel pretty anonymous. And that can make us feel pretty insignficant, or worse. It's hard to feel that way after reading Matthew 19:30, though. Here is how it reads in the NLT: “But many who are the greatest now will be least important then. And those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.” There are three key words here that I would like to try and highlight the way the Holy Spirit did to my heart when I read that passage a few days ago. I don’t think I can come close, but maybe He’ll zap your spirit with the same bolt of revelation as well.

NOW. It is so easy to let our “now” define us. Especially since our now can appear to be the sum total of all our yesterdays. But even if the math adds up to a big zero, it doesn’t really define us or determine our value. Right now there are those who are at the top of the world and the top of everyone’s short list for the receiving the promotion, invitation, or plaque. Right now there are those whose numbers of Facebook friends or Followers on Twitter are right there in duadruple-digit black and white, dwarfing the pitiful numbers of the have-nots of the social networking world. But Jesus says that right now, right this very moment, there are those who in our view seem important. And this just may be their only moment. This now.

That’s because there is surely coming a THEN. This “then” is not just one future moment in time. Jesus’ then actually refers to all the immeasurable moments of eternity – a non-ending succession of days that stretches forever. So what happens in that then is incredibly important and truly vital. And what Jesus says is there is a huge discrepancy between the fleeting now and the interminable then. In fact, if you’re going to hope for something really good to happen either now or then, you had better put your money on then. Because then will make now seem like so much of absolutely nothing. Jesus said it in another way in another place, “The first will be last and the last will be first.”

That’s not what it SEEMS like now. But that is just what Jesus is trying to point out. All is not as it seems. We place such a high priority on what seems good, seems important, or seems valuable. But to seem is to appear. And we all know that appearances are deceiving. Jesus said that everyone who appears to receive all the applause, accolades and accomplishments now may seem to be important. But He is the only real and accurate Judge of value and worth. So if you are struggling with the lack of trophies on your shelf or the abundance of fourth place finishes in your first half now, remember this. It is not over now, nor even when the next half of life comes to an end. There is coming a then. And it is what the Father thinks and says about us then that will make clear the difference between what and who once seemed important in this now and those who really are valuable, precious and worthy of reward and recognition to Him.

Remember this. When your cell phone doesn’t ring, e has He has already called you. When you are passed over, He has already chosen you. And when you are not recognized, he will acknowledge you before all who have ever lived and reward you with high honor. If not now, wait - just wait until THEN.