36, Day 36 (Written Sunday January 15) ~ Pray For This Money

I should have known that the thirty-sixth day of my thirty-sixth year would be a special day, and it truly was, because of the most humbling, sincere and honored gestured I’ve ever experienced, and it came at the hands of a young man I’ve never met.

His name was Austin Gaston and he died on Wednesday at the age of 26 due to complications from cystic fibrosis. He was laid to rest yesterday. Austin was a member of the Salem Church of Christ in Salem, Alabama. He aspired to be a chef, knew the Bible very well and had gone on mission trips with his father. In his last days he had commented to family members that the one thing he had failed to accomplish in life that he wanted to accomplish was, not becoming a chef, but influencing his younger sister to become a Christian. She was baptized into Christ this morning.

It was a very emotional day for his family, parents, grandparents, church family. After Bible class his father Richard approached me in the aisle and put a wad of money in my hand. It was three twenty dollar bills. He told me, with tears on his cheeks, that this was the money in Austin’s wallet when he passed away and that he couldn’t think of a more fitting thing to do with it than to give it to me in support of our mission work. I still don’t know what to say about this gesture. I know it was difficult for him to part with something that belonged to his son, but I also know that he was filled with a sense of pride in using something of his son’s to do something he knew his son would want to do. I’ve never been so humbled and honored in my life. It was to me as intimate an act as that of the lady who broke the alabaster box to give to Jesus, something that He said would be told forever in the kingdom as a memorial to her (Mark 14:3-9).

This is where you come in. An act of generosity, sacrifice and selflessness like this deserves to be used for more than buying gas or paying for a meal. It deserves to be a memorial to this young man, his faith, his family and his influence. I have already begun to, and I ask you to begin praying for this money and asking God to give me the wisdom and opportunity to use it as a seed for something great to His glory. I don’t feel worthy of such a great honor as being the steward of this money. I don’t know how I need to use it, but I want to put it in God’s hands to do something significant. I want to be able to walk up to Austin in heaven, and meet him for the first time, and be able to say, “Look what you were able to do, even after you were gone from the earth. Even though you were dead, like Abel, you continued to speak.”