When Your Life is Over…
Categories: Living our faith, Mission
What do you want people to say about you?
This is Miles Strodel. He is the father of my best friend since kindergarten (or third grade if you ask her), Donna Strodel Aldridge. Miles was like a second father to me, and the legacy he left behind when he passed away June 27th will live in my heart forever. Today, I heard people describe him at his memorial service: joyful, full of integrity, an environmentalist before there was such a thing, crazy, a coach, a father. All of these words rang so true to me. Perhaps my pastor of my youth, Gordon MacDonald, summed it up best. Miles’ life FIT. It all fit together. Whether you knew him as a coach, a camper, a father, a school headmaster, he was the same man. He lived with principles and integrity, and he lived a clean life. The pieces of his life…FIT.
That’s what I want people to say about me. I want to be known as a woman who was on a consistent race to show God’s kingdom. I don’t want there to be any hidden corners where light can’t shine, or inconsistencies in words or actions. It’s a tall order, but really is there any other way to live? I saw a legacy today. I saw how one man, living his own life consistently and with integrity, can change the world.
What do you want people to say about you?
As an aside, I also got to spend time today with some of my oldest and dearest friends. OK…no, we aren’t OLD. But these friends are so dear. As one of my high school buddies, Dick, said, it seems like no time has gone by at all. We have all shared the bond of growing through this world with faith in the ultimate outcome and joy in the journey. We were able to walk into our old church and pick up as if this crazy life in between had never happened. And we all agreed: that’s what Heaven will be like! What an amazing plan.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
This was really nice to read. Thanks for writing it.
July 29th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Marla, to be remembered as someone with integrity would be a true honour and I hope you will be. I bet he never chased it as a legacy either, he just lived it out because it was his character. It’s good to remember the people in our lives like Miles Strodel, thanks for this post.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Hi Marla,
Thanks. It has been encouraging to check out posts. We love you guys. Thanks for your thoughts about Dad. Something he used to tell me was how much further along I was at my age than when he was at that point. I think he would say the same to you. God makes it happen and I know you are following Him.
David
August 12th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Thank you, David. I’ve been thinking about your family today, as a matter of fact. I have been in a very stressful ministry season since I left you all: probably the most stressful two weeks of my life except Dad’s illness. Today — for 20 minutes or so — I thought I was seeing daylight, and my thoughts turned to your mom and all the rest of you! I’m holding you to the commitment to get together one of these trips up.
Your dad made such a huge impact on me, and his funeral was the most beautiful, joyous gathering of people who share that view. Hard to believe that I said a funeral was joyous, but it was. What a triumph to celerate a life so well-lived.