When Great Men are Made...

My grandfather's death has me contemplating what makes a great man great? This last week as we all said our goodbyes to my grandpa we whispered and proclaimed Jesus' name. HE received the glory for the life my grandpa lived. The legacy he has left behind is not money or some great accomplishment. What my grandpa leaves for us is an example of a life lived for Christ. No, he wasn't perfect. We all have our faults, but he chose Jesus over and over in his own life so that at the end of it we would all proclaim Jesus and give Him glory.



Solomon says in Proverbs 10, "The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot."

It is true, the memory of my grandpa's life is a blessing. So what makes it so? What makes a man's memory a blessing? It has been rolling around in my own mind for the past several days. A life lived for Christ does not happen by accident. No, a life lived for Christ happens in those secret moments when we are faced with the choice of Christ or the world, life or death, comfort or suffering, Jesus or Satan. When everything around us says to forsake Christ, do our own thing, have our own way but instead, by God's grace, we lift our hands in surrender to Him...we choose Jesus. It is those moments, when no one else is looking, that our legacy is decided.

"Only one life so soon will pass, only what's done for Christ will last..."

Perhaps it is the emotion from the loss of someone I love, but I can't help but fall on my face before the Lord and cry out to Him - I want my life to be His. So desperately. I want to be less so that He can be more, but how? 

I feel convicted.

Convicted because I know I fail. Pride. Ugh, Pride! Oswald Chambers calls it "The greatest curse in our spiritual life." This idea that I am doing "okay." I don't take the Lord's name in vain, I don't watch "those" kinds of movies, I don't participate in "those" types of activities....on and on.

I don't, I don't, I don't....but what in the world do I DO? What do you DO?

In those secret moments, when no one else is watching am I, are we, living for Jesus? It is one thing to proudly proclaim Jesus when all the Christians are watching, but what do I proclaim when no one is watching? Or when the unsaved are watching? 

Convicting.

My grandpa didn't suddenly wake up at 93 and was a godly man. No, he lived out 93 years of life struggling, battling Satan and this world. Consistently calling out the name of Jesus so that he could lie on his death bed at 93 and hear his children and grandchildren declare his life a blessing and proclaim the very name of Christ. 

It all has my mind spinning, contemplating my own life. Who is Tiffany when no one else is watching? Who are you when no one is watching? What makes me think that I'll wake up at 93 and be a godly woman? That is decided today, and tomorrow, and the day after that. As I choose who I will serve moment by moment. 

We must seek to be today who we would hope to be tomorrow. I won't suddenly become a godly wife when I marry a godly man. I must seek to be that godly woman today. I won't suddenly be a godly mom when I have children if I am not seeking to be godly today. 

So simple, so complicated.

It is only by God's grace that I would choose Him, only because of His strong hold on me that I can believe I will live my life for Christ, that I will be remembered as a godly woman.

I feel determined. 

Determined to live for Jesus, and I think this is key. A life lived for Christ involves a choice, a conscious decision to say no to my way of living and yes to His way. This is where I falter, it isn't easy. A life lived for Christ requires discipline and sacrifice. This world calls, offers instant gratification, and tells me I shouldn't have to suffer or sacrifice. Yet under the facade of "happiness" is emptiness and death. 

I challenge you, as I challenge myself, to be who God would want you to be TODAY. Don't wait until you are old, choose Jesus now, in those moments...when no one else watches...when the real you is laid bare before an Almighty God, when Satan temps you and calls out to you, when it seems your choice may not have that great of impact on your life, when that sin doesn't seem all that bad, when you feel weary of doing good...in those moments whisper Jesus' name. Surrender. Be His. Choose Him. Those are the moments when our legacy is decided, that is when great men are made.