Several times this week while I have been serving at Super Summer I have made my way to the lobby of the dorm where our meeting room is to pray, study, reflect, and generally to be alone. Over and over again I have noticed the portrait of a middle aged lady hanging on the wall. I have wondered who she was and why there was portrait of her in the lobby of this dormitory.
Let me describe my impressions of the portrait. The lady is in her middle to late fifties I am guessing. She is wearing a simple but elegant blue dress. There are no frills on the dress at all. It is a short sleeve dress with no collar, no lace, and no buttons, and no belt. The lady is sitting in brown Queen Victoria chair. She is wearing a simple single strand pearl necklace. Her left hand is not totally visible so it is not evident from the portrait whether she was married or not. The lady has short curly brown hair with a hint of grey near the temples. Her cheeks are rosy and though she is not smiling in the painting you can tell that she has a great deal of joy.
I have wondered many things about this lady. Who was she? Did she go to college here on the campus of Mary Hardin Baylor University? Was she a large donor to the college? What did she do to distinguish herself in her lifetime? Often in the middle of my studies and meditations I have looked and caught a glimpse of this picture.
What can you really know about somebody from just seeing a portrait? The portrait is really just an artist’s interpretations of a person. The artist can determine the lighting, the backdrop, and the countenance of the face as they paint each stroke. Can you know a person just by their portrait?
I don’t why I have found this portrait so fascinating. Earlier today as I was walking out of the building with a group of students I mentioned the portrait and one of them made a comment about a plaque being mounted on the outside wall of the building. On my way back from a meeting I stopped and read about the lady whose portrait has fascinated me these days.
The lady was a former student here on the campus back in the early 1920’s. She was a journalism major who after graduating here she went to teach journalism and English until she retired. She served on the board of trustees for the university for several years. I don’t think she was ever married or ever had children. It looks like she gave her life to teaching and to serving her community and this university.
Her friends were deeply touched as was this university and they ended up naming this dormitory after her. Her story has really been fulfilling and fascinating to read and finally get some closure on. This has gotten me to thinking.
If someone were to paint a portrait of you and me what impression would the artist have of us? What kind of clothes would you wear? Would you smile, would people see joy or pain behind the face? Would they see peace or stress? Would they wonder about your life? If they had the chance to read about your life would they be inspired to live with more passion and to strive for excellence in their arena?
This lady was passionate about teaching and journalism and devoted her life to it. She was very distinguished in this field and was given several awards for her labors. She used the talents God gave her and she leaned against the harness of her flesh to labor and do what she could where she was planted. Her life was a life well lived. She was not famous, she did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, I don’t know if she was wealthy. She was just an ordinary lady who found God’s purpose and call for her life and then she poured her life into the fulfillment of that calling.
Why were you created? You were not an accident as [Psalm 139] so eloquently states. [Jeremiah 29:11] tells us we were created for a purpose. My purpose is to preach, pastor, and write. When I am getting to do those things I never feel more alive nor more fulfilled. I have to preach. I have to pastor. I have to write. And I love every minute of it.
Yesterday I was sitting in a small room teaching the scriptures while seated in a chair and was nearly about to bounce out of my chair. I grew more and more excited with each point which means I also began to talk louder and louder.
Afterward a lady from the room next door came and asked who was the person who had all the passion? They could hear me next door and instead of being embarrassed I was thrilled to be called as a person of passion. I want my preaching, my writing, and my shepherding the flock at Paradise to be done with Passion.
If anyone ever paints my portrait and hangs it somewhere for people to see may they see me as a person of passion. May they see me as one who gave the Lord my all. May I live like Jonathan Edwards who resolved to live with all his might while he lived. May our portraits reflect passion for Christ and living and His glory.