During a number of months in the closing decade of the twentieth century, our nation was taken with the bizarre events of the trial of O. J. Simpson – tried for the murder of his former wife and her boyfriend. Simpson was declared: Not Guilty. Later he was found guilty (responsibility for a crime) by another court and the family was awarded millions of dollars which will not likely be collected. Simpson was even later found guilty of a crime, and is serving in prison at this writing, about fifteen years following the first trial. The leading lawyer defending Simpson is now deceased, and an eminent supporting lawyer was jailed for a time in another venue, and disbarred. The lawyers for the prosecution were not represented as the most competent, and much was left out of the trial that might have made clearer whether or not Simpson was guilty of the accusations. The leading representative of the police investigation appears to have been traumatized by the publicity, and did not present a truly professional testimony. Evidence appears to have been poorly handled. The story seems bizarre and tragic for persons and the history of law and justice.
Turning to a news program early in 2011, I found myself listening to an interview by Oprah Winfrey with Mark Furman, one of the chief witnesses at the trial. Furman, a police investigator of the crime scene, pointed out many errors of the Los Angeles Police and court in the treatment of the case. His interview conclusions were quite persuasive. He had conducted himself badly at the trial, and seemed to want to clarify the history. His career with the LAPD had concluded at trial’s end. He acted as a consultant in the intervening years. In closing, Winfrey asked a great question: What do you want to be your legacy for the future? Furman’s answer: Nothing. My heart dropped for Furman. Without his awareness, he was saying that his life has no meaning. Something for him started when he was born and it ends, in his thinking, when he dies. The program ended with his statement. It seemed like sad moments for Furman, even for secular society. He came, he lived, and he will die – finality. So he believes – with many others.
Everyone ends life with a legacy. It balances out as affirmative legacy, or negative. There is no third. Nothing is at the center line, neither affirmative nor negative, except as a break so to calculate. Someone other than this individual will find that legacy, perhaps form and articulate it. Elliot Ness, the agent from the FBI who in the 1930s led the shootout of John Dillinger, a notorious criminal, afterwards committed suicide. Both these legacies have been articulated, not by them, but by students of law in the decades since their tragic deaths. The legacy of life for Dillinger or Ness is for each his own and reality.
What does all this mean to us? God means for us to forge legacies. This is made clear in the discussions related to the leaders of Israel in the Old Testament, and found in the remarks of Jesus related to heaven and hell in the New Testament. Legacies are major in the illustrations of the centuries. We live something of the legacy of the pilgrims, ministers, educators, leaders, parents and all our predecessors. The legacy of my father was likely nothing – if he had spoken of himself on his death. He did leave something to me in the stories I gained from my mother. His gambling habit made him ugly on occasion stealing mother’s rent money and leaving it on a billiard table. Out of that background I came to hate gambling, and I would make a prejudiced judge of places like the strip in Las Vegas, or Casinos along the highways. Legacies are a certainty, some small and some large, some broadcast and some private – but legacy nonetheless. It is something we may summarize before God in ultimate evaluation of our lives. If it is taken seriously, self-judged and found wanting, one may be forgiven in the unfathomable sea of God’s redemption in Christ. Even the most bereft person can find meaning for life in that redemption. When all else passes away that which related to the Hope of God makes life sensible to us. It has a destiny, it can leave a legacy of meaning, and a model of what God prefers a person to be. To me it is an anomaly that some Christians do not take full advantage of the love and resources of God for life. Those resources are delivered through Scripture, prayer and identity with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit of God. When engaged with God, we discover that earthlies are related to ultimate heavenlies. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020