Leave Your Mark

While visiting my dad a few weeks ago while he was in the hospital up in Waterloo, I noticed this pole plastered with Visitor and Patient name tags. The pole is located at the road crossing from the hospital building to the parking lot. The name tags are a mandatory part of visiting this hospital. When patients arrive, a “Patient” name tag is given to them in order to clearly identify them before they are officially checked in and receive their hospital bracelet. The “Visitor” name tags are provided to each visitor every time a visit is made to a particular patient, and oftentimes have the patient’s room number written on them just under the word “Visitor.” 

When leaving the hospital, there is a receptacle for used name tags to be properly disposed of, however, if a person isn’t thinking about it, it is very easy to leave the hospital wearing your name tag–not realizing it’s still on until that receptacle is far off in the distance. I imagine this is how this pole began to serve as a “second chance” receptacle for the name tags.

Of course, like with most things, once one or two people have done something, it becomes easier for others to follow suit. The pole–once bare metal–has become a kind of monument to the lives lost, saved, and forever-altered by all that has taken place within the hospital walls. It is a testimony to the love that surrounds us–particularly palpable in times of dis-ease and distress–as well as to the sheer number of hurting people–either physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually–that have walked this same road–either separately or together. The pole might look like graffiti to the untrained eye, but to me it is evidence of people wishing to leave their mark–even in some small, perhaps annoying way–and let others know “we were here.”

My friend Joe Scallon’s visitation was Saturday, and I spent the day driving to and from Iowa Falls to take part. That afternoon, plus the funeral service the next day, were all focused on the mark Joe left on this world, his community, his church, his family, and the countless numbers of people who were lucky enough to call him a friend. The mark Joe left was one of humble service to others, hard work, and a deep and abiding love for God, family, and community. But the weekend was also laced with an undeniable message:  Joe has left his mark–now make sure to leave yours. 

I have mulled over those words in my heart and mind since then, and have pondered what that means in my own life. What mark am I leaving on the world? How do I know? As a person of faith, like my friend Joe was, I think the best way to tell if we are leaving a mark and what kind of mark we are leaving, is by looking at the condition of those around us. 

Jesus seemed to agree. Throughout his ministry, Jesus challenged “good, religious people” to move beyond their insistence on upholding the letter of the Law in favor of moving toward living the spirit of the Law. Jesus understood the Law to be interpreted by love, and not the other way around. In Matthew 25, Jesus shares the parable of the sheep and the goats, and in that teaching says, “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” The report card of our lives, it seems, comes from those around us and, in particular, from those who are worse off or struggling more than we are. People who can’t “pay us back” for whatever good we do, but rather, those who can only pay it forward in the aftermath of our kindness to them.

In this way, the lives of those around us that we have impacted become a living testimony to the love and nurture we have shown them. Their lives reflect the mark we have left on their hearts and on their lives–a monument to the lives impacted by us–understanding that our lives were first impacted by not only someone else–or a whole chorus of someone else’s–but by Christ. We love because Christ loved us, and that love has shown up through people making food and dropping it off after a death, through rides that have been given to us when we needed one, through hugs and knowing smiles, through phone calls and prayers and shopping trips. It is, after all, the simplest things that leave a mark on a soul. And those are marks that do not die with us, but continue long after our earthly bodies have died.  

So, my challenge to y’all this week is to look at the world around you. Are your fingerprints on it? Is there dirt under your fingernails from working to make it better for someone else? Are you living in such a way that your life is an unmistakable monument to someone else’s love? I know I’m sure working on it in my own life–a life that is a living testimony–a monument to all the love that has been shown to me thus far from many people–including a guy named Joe.

Leaving a mark of love with you,
Pr. Melissa

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