A Legacy of Shining Eyes

In my previous work at the university, late one evening I noticed a well-dressed man of about my age wandering the halls, looking for something.

He was searching for this plaque -- honoring a donation made in his mother's name -- that he had been told would be on display. When we found it, he was greatly relieved, as it seemed his mother's legacy had been established. I found myself profoundly sobered.

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In April, 1912, on its maiden voyage, RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic. Passengers included the [inflation-adjusted] billionaire John Jacob Astor IV and his 18-year-old second wife. The scandal of his divorce and remarriage had forced an extended honeymoon in Europe. She survived; he did not. His body was recovered, with a large sum of cash in several currencies, and various gold and diamond personal items.

His legacy is largely that of an aimless dilettante, capped off either by being turned away from a lifeboat, or relinquishing his seat for two children, depending on which source you believe.

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Three years later, at the opposite end of the Atlantic, explorer Ernest Shackleton's schooner Endurance was finally crushed by pack ice after being immobilized off of Antarctica for ten months.

Then began a harrowing nine-month escape for her crew -- a torturous trek across moving floes and water, and a freezing 700-mile open lifeboat journey. Followed by a desperate, 36-hour traverse of the mountains and glaciers of South Georgia Island (to reach a whaling station) by three of the men with only a 50' rope and a carpentry adze. Followed by four successive sea attempts through the ice to rescue the remaining starving, stranded crew.

Despite numerous failed get-rich-quick schemes and dying deeply in debt, Shackleton's legacy is that of a great leader who put others first and didn't lose a man. It is a godless legacy, however, despite testimony that on that last desperate traverse the three were aware of the presence of a fourth.

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And between those two events, the world was electrified to hear of the death of William Borden, heir to much of a Colorado silver mining fortune. A gifted leader and athlete, Borden had been a rising star at Yale, who forsook all (and invested all) for Christ. He became his generation's Jim Elliot when he succumbed to meningitis at age 25, while learning Arabic in Egypt in preparation for ministry in Asia.

His mother, who had intended a visit and instead arrived for a funeral, perhaps provided his best legacy -- that she would often find him in his room reading his Bible and meeting his Lord, from which he would look up with shining eyes.

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We are all so prone to spiritual blindness. What then, for you and I -- a shiny plaque, shiny things, a shining reputation, or shining eyes?