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Very Few of Us will Ever be a Footnote in the History of the World

By October 16, 2012April 12th, 2016Blog
George Whitefield

George Whitefield

Yesterday afternoon at the funeral home I was talking to one of my mom’s friends about church and spiritual things. She mentioned she was a Methodist and that John Wesley founded the Methodist church. I asked her if she knew anything of the history of Wesley or his relationship to George Whitefield. She had never heard of Whitefield and stood in shock and disbelief when I said he was probably th

e most well known figure on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in the mid-18th century and one of the central figures in the First Great Awakening. You would have thought I told her that Elvis had lip-synched all his songs!It is amazing that such a bright and shining light – a man so used of God – has been consigned to oblivion, wiped from the memories of the world and nothing but a footnote or the long-forgotten figure for whom a county or road is named.

It caused me to think…

Very few of us will ever be a footnote in the history of the world. Within only few short years every single one of us will pass into eternity. And as our children grow and their children, the vivid colors and textures of our lives will fade into a blurry watercolor mixture – and will soon be forgotten by the living. Think of the generations of your own family who have come before you. You may be blessed to know a few stories of your grandparents – but what of their parents? Do you have only a few tattered photos tucked away in a shoe box? And yet they were – in their day – as full of life and experience as you are today.

It drives home the truth of the statement from Missionary C. T. Studd, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.”

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