Dad...

I have a photo copied article on the wall above my computer. The article is about my Dad. The community I grew up in has a junior college. In the mid 90’s the president of the college wrote a weekly article for the paper. Shortly after my Dad passed away the president wrote the article about my Dad. Dr. Elliot mentioned the almost three decades my Dad invested as a teacher. He mentioned the countless students who were able to earn an Associate’s degree because my Dad took time out of his schedule to help his students understand chemistry and physics. He wrote a lot about how even after my Dad’s retirement, he would go up to the college and visit and encourage his former co-workers.

Every so often I look up at that article and reread what others remember about my Dad. In the article, Dr. Elliot asks these questions: “Did I make a difference? Did I leave this place a little better than I found it?”

At least once a year, I run into someone who took classes from my Dad, and more often than not they say that without his help they would not have passed chemistry of physics. I feel like my Dad left some pretty big shoes to fill. I remember the void he left in my life, and I can only assume to know what kind of void he left in the lives of others… For many my Dad did make a difference in their life. I think Dad did his best to leave our community, the college, and his friends a little better than he found them.

There are times I get overwhelmed, I look at all the things he did in his life for his students, his friends, his co-workers, and then I look at my own life… I will admit I have a little pity party for myself. I feel that I should be doing more with my life, that I should be impacting more people, that I should be able to see that I am making a difference… And then a moment of clarity comes and the party’s over. I remember that those were my Dad’s shoes to fill, not mine. I have my own shoes to grow into, to live into. All those good things I remember my Dad doing, those were his gifting’s, those were the things that brought meaning to his life. He was living into the man God made him to be. If I measure myself by what he did, I will never grow into the man God made me to be. If I try to fill my Dad’s shoes, whose life will I not touch because I was trying to be William Louis Ellerbrook instead of being Louis William Ellerbrook?

God makes each of us unique, and has given us different gifting’s and passions. Our families help us to grow up, to teach us, to love us… Live in your own life. Live into the person God made you to be. The world needs you. Not you trying to be someone else.