PAPA’S ADVICE – LEAVE YOUR MARK
Papa what is a ‘mark’
and why do I want to leave one anyway and if I did how do I do it?
When I was a
young 9th grader, about to move from one hall of our school (Jr.
High) to a hall on the other side of the building (Sr. High) I learned my first
lesson about leaving a ‘mark’. At that
time there was a student who was about to graduate from Haleyville High School,
who had made it is mission in life to either write, carve or paint his
self-designed personal logo on any
surface he could reach, whether sitting, standing or lifted. Wayland Elliott (Fern by nickname) had
covered the school with his mark ‘FERN 60’.
Now ‘FERN 60’ was a combination of his nickname, ‘FERN’ (which if you
went to Haleyville High you had to have) and the year he would graduate,
‘1960’. Literally ‘FERN 60’ was
everywhere, desk tops, locker doors, window facings, sidewalks, anywhere
pencil, pen, paint or carving could display it.
Now Wayland was not a bad young man, in fact he is a friend, an
outstanding former coach and very successful businessman in Birmingham. He is a great Christian example now, but back
then he was determined to leave his mark as ‘FERN 60’. Probably there are not many of us left who
remember ‘FERN 60’, but thousands of people will always remember Wayland Elliott
because of the ‘mark’ he is leaving as the Christian man he is, the good he
does and the lives he touches as a Christian.
The Bible
talks about leaving our ‘mark’ in a special way. Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:2 puts it this way, “You
yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by
everyone.” We are told to live
in such a way people will see in us our God.
Paul is calling us to leave our ‘mark’ on the places we have been and
the people we come in contact with. We
have an opportunity to make impressions for good to others we come across
daily. You are going to be known for
something, good or bad. You are going to
make a ‘mark’ of some kind, Paul is telling us to be a ‘mark’ for Christ as we
go along this journey.
Some of us
are going to remember ‘FERN 60” perhaps until we die and are gone, that’s it,
but thousands will remember Wayland Elliott through the ‘marks’ he made in
their lives as a good, hardworking man, writing and making his ‘mark’ on their
lives.
