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Today's Quote
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Today's Verse
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Daily Wisdom
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He was old, rather short, and spoke with a slight lisp. In chapel it was announced that he wanted to visit with students interested in missions. One or two stopped by to see him but they were not very interested. As I looked on, my heart grieved and tears came to my eyes.
Neither students, faculty, nor administrators paid much attention to this unimpressive old gentleman. When the students had gone to class I took a seat apposite him and asked him how things were going. His eyes lit up and I saw the same fire I had seen there on other occasions.
Here was a man who pioneered mission work in China. Back home he forever changed the face of Christian education. He discovered that rich American industrialists would give generously to Christian colleges if they were anti-Communist and pro free-enterprise. In spite of a speech impediment George Benson was a persuasive speaker. I know of at least one doctoral dissertation that has been written about his speeches. He appealed to foundations that have since given untold millions of dollars for numerous facilities on our Christian college campuses. He was president of two of our largest universities and has left a legacy that has been emulated by all the others.
We talked and reminisced for a time and then he headed for another Christian university. As I watched him walk across the campus where no one saw him as other than a strange old man, I was reminded of Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes. "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?"
I suppose every Christian college graduate and worker, as well as those they have touched, owes a debt to that little old man who was actually a very big man -- a resourceful, imaginative, ingenious, creative, and spiritual giant. Yet, how quickly we forget.
So, what's the lesson? Shall we give up because we'll not be remembered? Of course not! The lesson is that we should not be working for earthly recognition. Rather, we should "fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." (12:13, 14). God remembers when others have forgotten. Nothing else really matters, does it? The rest is meaningless!
