Influencing Faith

As I was listening to some old gospel songs this morning, an old memory came back to the front burner of my memory.  When I was seven years old my father died and five years later my mother married again to a Methodist preacher who served the neighborhood church we attended.  One of the things he brought into my life was music.  He had a collection of vinyl records and I found myself captivated by the music which came forth from the turn table.  As I heard "Softly and Tenderly, Jesus is Calling" resounding through the room this morning, I thought about the boy I used to be as he sat listening on the floor in front of the old stereo.    

And, I also heard a word of gratitude coming up from within me for this man who first started shaping my faith journey with music that has stayed in my heart for a lifetime.  Each of us has such people in our life.  Some of them are still with us, but unfortunately, too many of us will have to look heavenward for their image.  I know I would not have had the ministry of forty years or the life sustaining faith that I have had without his constant and steadying influence.   

I am grateful and I am hopeful that somehow Christ has been allowed to grip my life to the point that my children and grandchildren and, perhaps, even a small circle of friends will remember me as a person of influencing faith, too.  As believers this may be our greatest hope.  We may leave our children our stuff which they may keep for awhile as memorabilia, but hopefully the faith in us will abide in them for a lifetime and even into eternity.