Deacon's Diary

Deacon's Diary for Sunday-June, 29th

deaconlwg | July 06, 2008 04:25

Deacon's Diary is a weekly feature that appears on the back side of the bulletin at the First Baptist Church of Avalon, Texas.

A dash of light.

Vacation was good, but it's always good to get back home too. When a person gets accustomed to things around them a daily basis, it's hard to leave all those things behind for long periods of time. The dogs. The household projects. Even work. And in my case, my church and all the people in it. And so, to all of the members of my church family, let me say that it's good to be back.


While we were on vacation we listened to a pitch man for one of the resort companies try to sell us a time share program. Maybe some of have had the same experience. In part of the pitch man's presentation he used that analogy about 'the dash'. Maybe you've heard it too. He explained that all of us will have a birth date, and then a date on which we will have died carved on our tombstones. And, of course, there will always be a dash between the two dates. Those two dates don't really matter much. It's only memories in the dash that will matter in the end.


I've heard it before, so it was nothing new to me. I already knew the truth contained in that little analogy about the dash. But later on during our vacation, while looking up at all the stars in the night sky from an island on a lake in Arkansas, something else occurred to me that I think needs to be considered when thinking about that dash in our lives.


The stars that we see shining at night are just an illusion in a way. Since they are so far away, light years away, what we see is not what is there now, but rather what was there a long time ago. Legacies of light if you will. If a star burned itself out today, it would still be visible for the rest of my life. My kid's lives. And my Grandkids. And so on.


You see, that pitch man used the dash thing in an attempt to help people to realize that it is the memories they share that is really important. And he was right. But those stars reminded me that the dash is also the time that a person determines his or her own legacy. While we strive to leave lasting memories with our families, and that's a very good thing, let us also strive to leave a legacy of light behind.


That light I'm talking about is none other than the true Light of the world, Jesus Christ. There's no other light that shines brighter than His. There's no work that we do more important that the work we do at our churches. There's nothing that we can leave on this earth more important than sharing with others the life changing message of our beloved Savior.

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