Monday, June 17, 2019

Slim's Legacy

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

So be careful how you live.  Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.  Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.  Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.  Ephesians 5:15-17

My Dad would’ve been 101 today.  He was only a few years short of making it to triple digits when God decided there was a need in heaven for a laughter-loving, corny-joke-telling guy.  Elwood Frederick Brownworth (Slim, for short), wasn’t a dry wit; rather he was someone who made use of that bottomless pit of Readers Digest stories and quips.  Born into a generation that saw the end of World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, my Dad had to leave school after the 6th grade in 1930 to  pick up work here and there to help support a 7-member household.  In those days you did what you could just to keep food on the table. 
But exiting from the traditional school system didn’t mean he stopped learning.  Indeed, when he retired he went back to school, earning his GED.  And what he lacked in formal education he learned to replace by informal means.  Dad loved to travel and find out what made things tick.  He loved to put his knowledge of learned skills to use, teaching others.  When I was a pre-teen, Dad took a course to become a certified bowling instructor so he could organize children and youth bowling leagues.  Every Saturday morning our family would begin the day opening the bowling center…an old, smelly 10-lane place called Carlton Lanes, complete with a bar (which I never was permitted to enter).  We’d be there 6 hours or more while nearly 100 kids spent a week’s worth of pent-up energy from all that schoolwork, at noise levels approaching 140 decibels.  And, right in the center of the tornado of activity you’d find Slim, laughing and making corny jokes.
It’s coming up on 4 years since Dad left us to join Mom and many friends and family in God’s forever place.  Dad didn’t leave behind a truckload of stuff, or a bunch of land, or financial wealth.  Instead, our family treasures are the example of a Godly husband and father, what it’s like to be faithful, and a person who loves with his life’s commitments, and his word kept.  We have a legacy of attending church because we knew there was more to life than just stuff that pleases you. 
Somehow, my Dad, who didn’t have a knack for remembering Scripture, had learned to live what the apostle encouraged in his letter to the church folk at Ephesus…not to be fools, but understanding what God wanted them to do.  Dad loved to laugh and tell a joke to brighten up everyone’s day.  It wasn’t foolishness, it was his understanding that some are evangelists, some teachers and pastors….but some are called to live a life bringing light with wit, humor, and a knack for being there when the chips were down.
It’s hard to sum up a life in a few words, but some people live their lives in such an uncomplicated way that you really can get at the heart of the depth of their legacy in simple terms.  My father was one like that.  And here are the words that come to me this day:
They called him Slim, but that was his body; 
his life was full!
For You Today
When it’s all done, what will people remember about you?  If you’re talking about the people closest to you in life it will probably be little about your job, or your accomplishments.  I’m thinking it will be more how you loved them with your life opened to what mattered most to them. 
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com     Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

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