Legacy

I was cleaning someone’s counter and I saw a potholder that was made by a company called "Family Traditions." Wow, I pondered, have family traditions been relegated to potholders names?

Most of us, from our 20 something’s, have no idea what family traditions mean. So I began to think about what my family traditions are. Now this isn’t a poor family sob story. No quite the contrary. I have been adopted into the greatest family ever known and my Father sits on His thrown looking for ways to bless me.

Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

But what of family traditions? Here I find myself and adult by age and an aspiring adult by culture, yet what traditions do I bring to the table? Like most aspirings, I have a long legacy of things that I don’t want to bring. We have divorce, deceit, and a couple of other deadly sins. I feel very fortunate that I not only have several mothers and fathers claimed me as their own, but they have also created an earthly legacy for me. And that my father, Joe Hurston, has left an amazing legacy in missions for me. However, a warm fuzzy family feeling I have not. I lack traditions.

So I made up my own traditions. I remember that before I got saved, I spent some time pondering this lack of legacy. I created my own out of a mixture of frustration and amusement. For example, in Florida, our state song is a racist ballad called the Suwanee River (the words have been changed to hide the true traditions of the Florida Cracker:). Every time I pass over this river on a trip I sing this song. I also turn up radios full blast when I go through underwater tunnels so that I can hear it fade out as I get fully submerged in the tunnel. Since, again, I live in Florida; this doesn’t happen in copious amounts- but a legacy none the less. I used to have some much less savory legacies as well like getting wasted on my birthday or hitchhiking around third world countries to see where I would end up. The very kind of legacies that would stop me from having any further breaths at all. Ahh, the conning nature of the father of lies.

I am going to make a bold statement like “Legacy is all that matters”. Everything that the Lord does is multi generational. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The outer courts, the inner courts, and the Holy of Hollies. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Generational and long lasting.

I have lived a blessed life. Many mountain tops have been viewed through my eyes and my dusty and dirty feet have walked through the dirt of over 50 countries. Great experiences, As I distil down to my top ten, I am amazed by one of the winners. I have a dear and loving friend named Terrell. All people should pray to have a friend like Terrell. Iron sharpens iron. When her grandmother died she asked me to come to the funeral. Little did I know that this experience would change my life forever.

Terrell is a beautiful shade of pecan tan. Her family ranges from dark chocolate to red as an native American but all are of African descent which means that this funeral was going to be long, hot, dramatic, music and food filled, and simply amazing. White people don’t know how to do a proper send off.

Ola Jenkins. Mother of nine, grandmother of 56. Creator of something bigger than I could ever imagine or touch. She married at 14 and spent her whole life thinking multi-generationally. Of her 9 children, 8 are in ministry. Out of her grandchildren, she has seen preachers, singers, missionaries, and every shade of church worker. Her commitment to the Lord made a lasting decision for hundreds of lives to follow.

The Lord got a hold of her and made something which is running wild in the earth in 2007- long after her time to go home and be with the Lord!

I think of my Pastor, Matt Stallbaum. He was cleaning toilets when God gave him a vision to start a church. This church has pulled so many talents out of people, created marriages that have created children:) and grown people up in the Lord. One man's vision creating a legacy. I think about Jesus.

My traditions- what am I leaving? If I died today, what would be said for my words and deeds? I am finding that it is not the big things I do. Those have their value but what is of real value is becoming so clear. It is the one-on-one and interpersonal relationships. It is the smile I give and the patience that pulls me forward. It is saying no when I want to do something because I think of how it will affect my children’s children. It is the time that I refuse to do that thing in the silence and darkness where no one but the Lord and I would know. It is the decision to leave a legacy.

I thank the Lord for Jesus. I thank Him for Matt. And I thank Him for Ola. God Bless Ola Jenkins. Her legacy is written on my heart and on the faces of every Jenkins I come into contact with.

I am going to Africa soon. Very soon and for six months. I should write about this….