The Author and Perfecter

I took the old gentleman that I work for to meet with some of his friends at the Buzz Inn, a local restaurant, this morning. They go down there just about every morning and he used to go all of the time but since he became sick he hasn't been able to nearly as much; so we went just to give him a little boost in morale and encouragement emotionally.

We got down there fairly early, and boy did the stories role. As soon as we sat down it seemed that the stories began and there was much laughter and a lot of smiles and talking about the old days when they were all young and married and drank a lot. For the most part I enjoyed it, but as we were driving away I began to think about why I felt kind of empty inside afterwards. It wasn't so much the particular guys I was around but the particular contents of their conversation. They joked a lot about sex, women and drunkenness and though it wasn't particularly vulgar or crass in the words they chose the conversation was extremely empty and dry and filled with the sinfulness of former days. Now, don't get me wrong, we all have sinfulness of former days to talk about, and probably some from today, but the way it was talked about broke my heart. There wasn't much room for remorse or any understanding that the things they had done were wrong and it just made me think, "YAHveh, I don't want to be like that when I get older." Now, not all of the men were as bad as the three main talkers were; in fact, I know there is one solid Christian man in the group, but I just began to think about how I don't want to live my life and towards the end of my days only have stories of the old sinful life I used to live. Now, I love listening to stories from old guys but the good ones, the really good ones, are from the guys that have lived a life of faith with God and they tell of their relationship with Him. I say, let those stories role.

What I'm trying to get at here is how I want Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith, to do just that in me. He said that he will and I know that I can trust in him to do so, but it was really impressed on my heart today that I want to have a legacy of faith behind me when I come to the end of my days and not just a legacy of sin and rebellion against God. They don't even know it yet, but one day they will be judged before YAHveh, as we all will be, and I pray that before that time comes they will come to know Him, through Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior.