Wednesday, March 30, 2011

what are you doing with your life that will last forever

Located on a wall in our church are hundreds of photos of people holding a paper with their legacy written on it. The question was posed for them as to what they wanted to be remembered for? In other words what will your legacy be when you walk to the other side of life?

Hundreds of phrases are written, all are as important as the other, yet this one jumps out. You see in the middle of this frame is Joel's legacy. He wants to be known as the man who stacked chairs.

Here is why this moves me to tears. You see, Joel is always here after the third service each Sunday stacking our chairs and putting them away so our building can be used for basketball. You can observe him waiting patiently for people to get up and leave so he can begin the stacking of chairs. He does it with a smile and with a sense of value.

For those of you who don't know Joel as I do, he has autism and some would say this limits him. I choose to say that God has blessed him with the unusual ability to do things well and do them often. Joel is special to me because everything he does, from his worship, to his hugs, to his handshakes, are from a Heart of Love.

So when Joel had a chance to put his legacy down he wrote "I stacked chairs." Well Joel, you are right, you will be remembered for this, but for so much more too. I am so glad God gave us Joel here at Grace Community, the world needs a few more men like Joel !

2 comments:

Linz said...

I'm so happy you posted this. Last Monday we had our oldest son, Isaac evaluated for Developmental Delay and possible outcome of Autism. We are currently in the waiting game and won't find out til the end of April what the results are. Thank you for putting this up, and reminding us that no matter what, God has something major planned for our son's life as well....no matter what....we know it will be genuine, just like Joel. Amazing.

Jamie said...

What a beautiful story! I LOVE this! =)