The Impact of One Life

 

 

 

Recently, I reread a card we received some time back from our local Verizon store rep.  The front of the card had these words recorded:

 

When a stone is dropped into a lake,

it quickly disappears from sight—

 but its impact leaves behind

  a series of ripples that broaden

 and reach across the water.

 In the same way,

 the impact of one life lived for Christ

 leaves behind an influence for good

     that touches the lives of many others.

 --Roy Lessin

 

 

 

As I read those first impactful lines, I couldn’t help but think of the life of our daughter. Brianna was here and then… she quickly disappeared ‘from sight’.  Just contemplating this brought a flood of emotions that flooded my eyes. Yet, her impact has, like the stone in the lake, left ‘a series of ripples’ which has broaden and reached into many waters, across the sea.  Truly, only one day in the glorious hereafter will we realize the impact that her short 19 years made.

 

Even after 10 months, I must be honest, there is constantly the temptation to ‘gripe’ against the Lord, ‘why did you permit this horrible tragedy the devil caused…a life cut down when she was on the verge of…?’ I recognize the devil is behind these attacks, but it doesn’t make it any easier when twice in the last week we’ve driven out to the main airport Brianna flew out of--seeing those planes she flew, watching and listening to one take off, looking at that bench made as a memorial for her.

 

The only way to find sanity is contemplate on what God has had to endure for 6000 years and the millions of his children the devil has ‘cut down’ over the centuries. Just imagine having the power to destroy the devil, who murdered His Son in human flesh at the Cross—the restraint Jehovah must have exercised to refrain from ‘pulling the plug’ on Satan!  This is how much love He has for you and me. Wow!  It is for the sake of man that He has permitted the devil to continue these two millennium longer, so that these two great principles which have been at war since the beginning of time, would come to fruition in the human experience. These two principles-       -the spirit of self-exaltation and the spirit of self-sacrifice—truly have nearly reached maturity. It will be seen in our world, two classes of people, a much larger one under the former principle and just a remnant under the latter.

 

When a parent loses a child, nothing else in this life really matters.  A brother in the faith came the Monday after Brianna’s death to minister to my wife and I and he shared something I’ve kept in mind ever since.  He said, “we are not to let the devil snatch our loved ones without him paying the price; his kingdom needs to be damaged for what he has done.” He went on to say that we need to video the memorial service and put it up on You Tube for the world to see. Well, we’ve done more, we’ve created a website, with that video and many others, plus we’ve set up a foundation to further impact others for the Kingdom of Heaven.  We’ve set our minds on the task for ‘reclaiming more souls' for Christ through this ministry of suffering—truly an unwelcome privilege.

 

Just tonight the Lord sent me an encouragement through a brother who called me to share how blessed he was by a book I sent him, entitled “Victory in Jesus”. And if that was not enough, I then read this statement: “It is your privilege to be glad in the Lord, and to rejoice in the knowledge of His sustaining grace. Let His love take possession of mind and heart. Guard against becoming overwearied, careworn, depressed. Bear an uplifting testimony.” So I must end on a good note. 

This last statement has become my anchor through it all:

 

“God never leads His people otherwise they would choose to be lead if they could see the end from the beginning and discern the glory of the purpose they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him.”  DA 224, 225.

 

Thank you Lord, for bearing me up!