When All Is Said and Done

At first I resisted when my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Tolle, tried to teach me to spell. After all, she was the one who kept talking about the "three Rs." And if she thought the "three Rs" were "reading, writing, and arithmetic," I wasn't sure spelling was her forte! Mrs. Tolle believed in the power of repetition, though, and she repeated one spelling rule over and over again: "I before E except after C." Forty years later, her rule gives me confidence every time I write "believe" or "receive," and it still drives me to the dictionary whenever one of The Lookout's writers uses the word "seize" or "weird"!

Good teachers are known for their "faithful sayings"—short, memorable bits of wisdom that leave an indelible impression on their students' minds. Military leaders rally their troops with phrases like "Remember Pearl Harbor." Coaches motivate their players with slogans like Knute Rockne's "Go out there and win one for the Gipper," or Yogi Berra's "It ain't over till it's over." Presidents stir their followers with inspiring phrases like Ronald Reagan's "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny" or John Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Thirty years after hearing it, my wife still recalls her dad's wise advice to his teenage daughters: "Always remember who you are and Whose you are." In the late 1960s and early 70s, Bob Stacy, director of Christ In Youth, burned into the hearts of young people all over America the slogan, "Praise to him who specializes in the impossible!"

The apostle Paul stressed to his friends what he called "trustworthy sayings" about the work of elders in the church (1 Timothy 3:1), about putting our hope in God (1 Timothy 4:9, 10), and about other important doctrines of the faith (2 Timothy 2:11-13; Titus 1:7, 8).

What faithful sayings are you and I passing on to those around us? When we've said all there is to say and done all that we can do, will we have burned deeply into the hearts of our loved ones some central truths they can't help but remember?

The Lord Jesus underscored certain teachings with the preface, "verily (truly) I say unto you." Other times he highlighted crucial ideas by repeating a phrase like "I am (the bread of life, the light of the world, the true vine)" or "He who has ears, let him hear." Most of us would consider it quite an accomplishment if we said even one sentence people still remember years after we die. But even a short section of Jesus' teaching, like his Sermon on the Mount, overflows with faithful sayings that stick in our minds: "Let your light shine before men," "Seek and you will find," "Do to others what you would have them do to you."

When Jesus finished his sermon, the listeners were amazed "because he taught as one who had authority" (Matthew 7:28, 29). He wasn't like most teachers of the law who backed up their words by quoting other authorities and citing various rabbis. Jesus' teaching flowed from his own authority as the Son of God, and he backed up his words with faithful deeds. Even when he agonized in Gethsemane and died on the cross, Jesus spoke faithful sayings: "Not my will, but yours be done." "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing."

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15). Because when all is said and done, nothing greater has been said and done than what Jesus said and did on the cross.