Will you carve your name on parchment, stone or hearts?

  • Published
  • By Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Steven Nicolai
  • 71st Flying Training Wing
Vance Air Force Base, Okla. --  What will the epitaph on your headstone read: Parchment? stone? or hearts?
I have heard it said there are three ways we write our name in life, or make ourselves known, to leave a legacy. We write our names either on parchment, in stone or on the hearts of people. How do you write your name?
First, we could write our name on parchment. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus teaches a parable to remind us a person's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:13-21).
Ex-Arizona Cardinal football player Patrick Tillman left his professional sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in May 2002. He served in Iraq and later in Afghanistan, where he was killed April 22, 2004, as a result of a friendly fire incident.
Here is an individual who had it all -- a life most of us can only dream about. But, somewhere in life, he learned the lesson that life does not consist in the abundance of one's possessions, and he became a shining example of the core value of "Service Before Self." Pat Tillman did not write his name on parchment.
Second, we could write our names on stone. English historian Lord Acton said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Power is very seductive and often becomes very divisive. Hebrew scripture admonishes us to "Be still and know that (He is) God" (Psalms 46:10); it is God who is our refuge and strength in life, not we ourselves.
J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy "The Lord of the Rings" is perhaps the best illustration of this. In the trilogy, there are nine great kings who possess rings of power, but over the years they are gradually devoured by the power they possess until they lose material substance altogether and are forced to borrow the physical bodies of other beings in order to make their way about in life. Something quite similar often seems to happen to those who devote their lives to power; this quest for power seems to eat away like cancer, inside and out. Inside, we can lose joy and spontaneity and generosity of impulse. Outside, we might even seem to wither, to become withdrawn and isolated. We need to be careful not to write our names in stone.
Finally, we could write our names on hearts. God calls us to do this by humbly loving and serving one another (Phillipians 2:4, Collossians 3:12-13), and by upholding the godly worth of one another (Matthew 22:37).
In Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet In Heaven," Eddie is a lonely war veteran and widower who feels like his life as a repairman at the Ruby Pier Amusement Park has been meaningless. On his 83rd birthday, an accident on one of the rides imperils a
5-year-old girl, and Eddie risks his own safety in front of a horrified crowd as he attempts to save her life. The last thing he sees is the little girl's frightened face. The last thing he feels is two small hands in his. Then, after a blinding flash of light and silence, Eddie reawakens in an unfamiliar place called Heaven ... but he's not alone. Five people are waiting to meet him. One by one, they illuminate the impact Eddie has had on others and show him why his life on Earth was not insignificant.
Like Eddie, we can write our name on the hearts of those we meet at the intersections of our assignments.
By the time this article is printed, my family and I will be in our final days at Vance, ready to permanently change stations to Misawa Air Base, Japan. Reflecting upon my past two years, I would have to say for various reasons that after seven assignments that took us through five commands and onto three continents, Vance has been my best assignment to date. A part of this is because I believe our chapel staff has attempted to write God's name upon the hearts of those whom we were called to serve.
I challenge you to reflect upon your life, your work, your relationships, and then ask yourself, are you writing your name upon parchment? Stone? Or hearts? I would submit to you that, together, as we write our names upon hearts, we glorify God, honor Airmen and serve all.
God Bless.