Sitting on Other Shoulders

"Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful. May the fire of our devotion light their way. May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe, and the lives we live inspire them to obey. Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful."

In recent years the words of that song have energized and challenged me more than anything else that we sing. God has done his part, and that is far more important than anything I have done, do, or will do. But this is my part — my part as a follower of Jesus, a privileged person, living with great promise.

Those of you who are fifteen, or twenty-five (unless you have a little one or two) don"t feel this yet as keenly as those of us who are grandparents and over-middle-aged. But you will. And it is a very good thing that the consciousness begins to grow in us stronger and stronger.

Today we are going to spend most of our time talking about the other side of this faith-passing equation. We have been, and are, on the receiving end of a heritage, example, and a God-given assignment. It has been almost immeasurably important to us. For us to "listen," to consider, and to apply what has been passed forward to us is right — and now to add our very best determinations and insights to the best from the past. We're "sitting on other shoulders." Our forebears have given us more than a beginning. They have taught us lessons (some learned with great difficulty, some discovered because of their commitments, some learned through pain and error), and kept us from having to start at the same place they started. That's what we want to think about today.

But it doesn't hurt for us to make a disciple's determination to leave the most faithful footprints we can for the ones who come along behind us.