Legacy
/Today, my Grandpa (affectionately known as Big Pawpaw) would've been 92 years old. He passed away in 2007 after a long battle with kidney cancer. He is truly missed by our family. His strength and constant faith were such an anchor for us as we walked through life.
I'm grateful for the impact he made on my life. He modeled for me what it meant to daily spend time God... what it meant to trust God for BIG things... what it meant to live a life of integrity...
I always loved looking through his Bible. His Bible was like a journal for him. He made notes all over every page! It was a testament to his daily walk with the Lord. When I would stay at their house over holidays, I would often find him sitting in his chair in the morning just praying. He constantly prayed for our family.
My Grandpa was truly a visionary. He was always dreaming big and believing God for great things. He would always encourage my Dad (a pastor) to always believe the Lord for awesome things. He would spend hours coming up with ways to make our church more effective in ministry. He truly lived out Ephesians 3:20 and believed God for "immeasurably more."
He was a man of integrity. He was a man of his word. He was who he claimed to be. I can't tell you how impacting that was to me as I was growing up. He showed me how a man is supposed to live in this world; for his God, for his family, and for his neighbor.
As his life here on earth was drawing to a close, all of the family went to visit him at the hospital. During that time, he called my family of four up around his bedside. He looked me in the eye and said, "Brett, fight the fight and keep the faith." In that moment, my faith became real to me. If a man who had suffered so much was still bravely holding onto to his faith, then Jesus is all that He claims to be. I wasn't there when he passed away, but my Dad says that some of my Grandpa's last words were from Romans 8:38-39 -
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I'm so thankful for the legacy he left our family. I'm grateful for the hope that I have in Christ that I will one day see him again.