BRIEF BLOOMERS

Our extended family has a decades-old tradition of hunting for spring's first buttercup. It requires a keen sense of “when” and usually several trips to higher elevations where the dainty wildflowers start poking through. This year, “Buttercup Day” came later than usual in late March. But oh—the smile on my husband's face when he caught the fleeting hue of yellow along the roadside.

Sometimes my mind makes strange (but reasonable) connections—and this time it was an old quote attributed to C.T. Studd (1860-1931), a cricket-player from England who gave up wealth and comfort and went to the mission field, serving in India, Sudan, and Congo. The quote: “Only one life, twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last.”

Maybe the pandemic has me thinking more about what will be accomplished at my life's end. Maybe it's also my prayers for people I care about who struggle spiritually. In going through paper piles lately (aren't most people doing that these days?) I came across an article I'd saved from the alumni magazine of Wheaton College, where I earned my master's degree. Its alumni legacy includes “wholehearted” folks like missionary martyr Jim Elliot and evangelist Billy Graham. Plus—lots of other “regular people” (like me) who studied their hearts out in pursuing what they believed to be part of God's path for their lives.

This article featured a young woman named Anna O'Connor, who died at 26 in 2012 after struggling nine years with a rare form of cancer called neuroblastoma. Doctors at first gave her a year to live, but she and her family fought on. Besides finishing her master's in psychology in 2011 at Wheaton, the article said, “in spite of her illness, and because of it, Anna established a nonprofit organization , hosted a music festival....raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research, and counseled and comforted many.”

Speaking in chapel three years before she died, Anna encouraged students not to worry so much about grades or their life's accomplishments, but rather, “My hope is that you will learn what it means to be fully alive to the presence of God.” Some 1,700 people attended her 2012 memorial service in the college chapel.*

Legacy. Like those elusive buttercups, bright but brief reminders of God's calling and mandate regarding our lives that will “soon be past." It comes down to daily choices. Questions like, “Will this activity enrich my life and bring honor to Jesus? Am I serving like Jesus? Am I seeking the best in others and building them up?”

It's said that buttercups were once known in Europe as “King's Cups” because of how they resembled a crown. I certainly see the analogy there, remembering Studd's challenge: “Only what's done for Christ [the King] will last.”

*Read the original article about her starting at page 23 at this web page: autumn2012.pdf (wheaton.edu)