Today we measure success by what a person has achieved, what they own, their businesses, the lifestyle they live, and so forth. But once they’re gone, we realise no one talks about these things. In homegoing services, scantily, or never, have I heard people remember their loved ones for how ambitious they were in scaling their businesses, how lavish they lived, the cars they drove, or how much land they owned. No! In fact, if this is all that’s left of a person, I presume, no one would even come to celebrate their homegoing because all they cared about was themselves. Life is more than that. It is much more than all of us. So the question is, if all this is not success, then what is? If all this won’t bring us contentment, then what will? What is success?
My paternal grandmother’s younger sister just passed away a few days ago, and today we watched her homegoing service. I’d say I am privileged to witness the homegoing service online of someone who today would be considered insignificant in the world because of the greed that drives humans to achieve, build, earn more and so forth. But truly, her legacy speaks for itself. She loved God more than anyone; she loved people beyond what we can understand today. How can I say this? She didn’t have to speak for herself today, but everyone else did.
Did she face difficulties? More than we can count, or I think we’re unprepared in today’s world to even face them and still love Jesus with a smile on our face. My grandfather was paralysed in the year 2000, and Grandma had to step in to take all the responsibility of the house, including getting their children married and settled for good. She was diagnosed with stage three cancer herself, with the doctors telling them that she would only survive for five or six years. But do we serve a faithful God? Yes! She lived another 21 years miraculously and never complained because of how much pain she would experience.
Someone shared an instance when my Grandpa shared the gospel with someone, and the locals in that town were agitated. They tried to storm into my Grandma’s house with chains in their hands, intending to beat my Grandpa for what he did. My Grandma was home alone that day. She opened the house and welcomed them. She didn’t care why they were there, nor was she afraid. In her innocence, she prepared hot tea and snacks for everyone and loved them. What was she doing? She was doing the Word. Our Lord said, “The world will know we’re Christians by our love”. Redemption entered that house that day because one woman chose to love people, regardless of their intentions. They came one way, but they left forever changed. Would she have done this if she was only thinking about herself? Life is much more than ourselves.
She always addressed my Dad as Pastor, not son. That surprised me. My wife and I had the privilege of visiting them after our marriage, and I remember her welcoming us with folded hands (the Indian way of saying hello with respect) and addressing us both as Pastors. We were shocked, shy, and whatnot. She said, of course, you are men and women of God. You serve a great purpose. Even your Dad is a man of God, and I honour him the same way. Would she have done this if she was only thinking of herself? Life is much more than ourselves.
She loved people in their pain and weaknesses, and always sought opportunities to serve them, ignoring all the suffering that she herself was experiencing. I can talk on and on about how much she cared for and loved people because that is the legacy she left behind: everyone she impacted will never be able to keep from sharing how they felt. But now the question is, how did she do it? Is this even possible or real? Has she never cried alone? Has she ever felt alone? I don’t know! But I can tell you how she kept it going.
Everyone shared how much she loved God and that she was a woman of prayer. However, I could see clearly how she kept going when her younger daughter shared how much her mother loved God. She said, “From a very young age, I saw my mother reading the bible early in the morning and kneeling beside her bed to pray. Often, during the day, she would retreat for two or three minutes to her room to pray and intercede for people and would come back to do her work”. Her absolute trust was not in her weakness, sickness, pain or what she suffered from, but on the altar of God that she would often return to. She believed and dared to trust this unseen God, and he made her fearless. She defied every circumstance that the enemy threw at her because the fire of God was always burning in her through prayer.
This fire doesn’t need eloquent words to persuade or transform lives. This is the very fire that transformed her children and made them hungry to know God for themselves and to love Him with all their hearts. I could go on and on about her, and there could still be so much more that I don’t know. John wrote in the Gospel that there’s so much that Jesus did that if we were to write it, not even all the books in this world would suffice. That’s the legacy that we are all called to leave behind.
I pray this blog has inspired us to carry the same fire and zeal for the Lord as my grandmother did for the 79 years she walked on this earth. If I have learned something from her life, how can I not bless you then with something that will inspire you to be fearless and bold like a lion in every circumstance? Today, I’m not asking you to like this blog, share it or do anything to market what I have written, but can we choose to love God with all our hearts today and love people beyond our own abilities by relying on the Holy Spirit every moment of our lives? When we do, there will come a day when we will be remembered for the altar of God within our hearts that always burned bright, and for how much we loved people and cared for them. If the people won’t say it, the rocks will certainly cry out.
