MEMORIAL SERVICE, MRS. LIB COLVIN

#922                                                               FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

                                                                              Bernice, Louisiana

                                                                                    May 6, 1991

                                                                              Memorial Service

                                                                                 Mrs. Lib Colvin

                There is a nonsensical story of an old farmer sitting on a rickety rocker on the porch of his cabin way back in the hills.  A backpacker happened along the trail that brought him by the cabin.  Being hot and thirsty on the August day, he stopped and attempted to engage the old man, hoping to get an offer to stop and rest.  Asked about cotton, the old man told the youth there was none because of boll weevils.  Asked about corn, he informed him that it was not smart to plant corn when there was no rain.  Asked what he did plant, the farmer responded, “I didn’t plant nothin’!  I played it safe!”

                But this has nothing to do with Miss Lib.  The one thing that she was careful to avoid was playing it safe, especially where her Christian responsibility was concerned.  She knew what she ought to do, needed to do, and set about doing it.

                Too many people are like the old farmer.  Just playing it safe!  And when the end comes, nothing is left.  We have so much to learn from Miss Lib.  As much as we grieve for her, yet we know that this was the essence of her life.  She was prepared for this moment of truth.

                My wife taught her Sunday School lesson yesterday.  She fretted when she first found that it would be her job.  Then, someone gave her the material that Miss Lib herself had prepared.  She knew what her responsibility was, and she was ready.  Imagine, she went in the hospital on Thursday, and her lesson for the next Sunday was already prepared.

                I know teachers who don’t start preparing until Friday night.  I know preachers who have no idea on Saturday what they are going to preach about on Sunday night.  Occasionally, Sunday morning also.  This dear lady, who has taught this class longer than any of us can remember, regularly prepared her lesson early in the week, starting even on Sunday afternoon.  She would never run the risk of being unprepared.  Her message to us here today is preparation.  What we are responsible for, do it well.  Because we face the future uncertainly, face it squarely, with Christ as Lord of our lives.

I.             We Learn from Her the Importance of Something to Believe.  “If I do not the work of my Father,” Jesus said, “believe me not.  But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works; that you may know and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in Him.”  (John 10:37-38.)  Again from John (11:25), “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

                No matter where we are in life, the essence of living is in what we believe: the content of our belief and the way we live our lives in response to the things believed.  For the Christian, what we believe about Christ sets the tone for everything we do.  Of course, there are generalities, like believing the sun will rise tomorrow.  But the special things that show Christ alive within this committed life have particular meaning.  Romans 15:13, “Now the God of all hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing.”

II.            The Next Thing there is to Learn from Her is of Something to Be. I John 3:1-3, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we shall be called children of God . . . now we are God’s children, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.” 

                The example of Jesus was of major importance in Miss Lib’s life:  Moral persuasion, compassion, and commitment to God’s will.  Hebrews 10:9, “Then said He, Lo, I come to do thy will O God.”  Our highest resolve is shallow outside of the will of God.  She was a fine example of womanhood, of sacrificial service, and of commitment of one’s best.

III.           The Third Thing that We Learn from Her is of Something to Do.  Rev. 22:14, “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates to the city.”  There is a proper sequence:  Something to believe, something to be, and something to do.  The example of Jesus was to do what He was uniquely equipped to do. 

                We have surrendered a friend to the ages who showed us that this works in ordinary lives also.  She found Christ sufficiently able to forgive sin.  She grew in God’s grace to discover His purpose in deliverance from sin also.

Conclusion

                Henry C. Morrison, missionary to Africa, tells of his return to America.  A life had been spent in faithful and effective missionary service in Africa.  He was retiring, regretting that he was at the end of the way.  Teddy Roosevelt was on the same ship, returning from some safari or the other.  Servants attended his every need on board the ship.  As they approached New York harbor, passengers could see crowds of people at the dock, awaiting the president.

                Mr. Morrison said he was filled with self-pity.  For the president, it had been fun and games.  For him, it had been devotion and service.  But the crowds were waiting to see the president, not him.   But suddenly, he said, the Lord filled him with an understanding that he “was not home yet.”