legacy

Austin enjoyed the time he spent with his grandfather, a tough old cowboy everyone knew as “Curly.” The hardened rancher showed his grandson how to ride, shoot, and mend fences. Along the way, Curly even shared little pieces of advice with Austin.

In 1796, Thomas Paine, the patriotic author of Common Sense – the pamphlet some claim started the Revolutionary War – wrote a letter to a colleague that was filled with scathing and accusatory criticism. In fact, the words to his friend were just as cutting as the words he’d used against the tyrannical English government a few years earlier.

The recipient of that letter may surprise you.

Though quite wealthy, Ludvig’s life wasn’t particularly noteworthy, and on April 12, 1888, he died after a long bout with heart disease. But when his more famous brother Alfred read the obituary, he was struck to his core…for two reasons.

First, his name was listed as the deceased, and second, it didn’t read too kindly.

Dr. Martha Myers touched the lives of thousands of people as a medical missionary in the country of Yemen. The native of Alabama worked long hours at the Jibla Baptist Hospital throughout the week, and then delivered treatment and medical supplies on weekends.

And even though she was shot and killed in 2002, she’s still impacting Yemenis because of a decision she made years earlier.

Plagues were fairly common in ancient times, and the microscopic germs that caused them could do more damage than an advancing army. In 260 AD, an outbreak of disease struck the Roman Empire with such severity that thousands were dying in the capital city each day!

The suffering was enormous and would reveal stark differences between Christians and non-believers.

Johnny Hart died at his drawing table on Saturday, April 7, 2007. It was fitting that the artist passed away on Easter weekend that year; after all, the Easter message had captivated his life’s work for decades.

And as a result of that work, over 100 million people read about the empty tomb in his comic strip, B.C.

Father Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish-born priest who affected the lives of thousands around the world through a ministry he founded within the Roman Catholic Church. But his real legacy centers on a selfless act for one man named Francis…at a place called Auschwitz.

In the summer of 2011, San Diego police officer Jeremy Henwood was shot and killed in the line of duty. The 36-year-old peacekeeper was also a captain in the Marine Reserves and had spent much of his life defending and helping others.

In fact, surveillance footage taken the night he died revealed one final act of sacrifice by Henwood.

Though they had never met one another, Judy Wein and Ling Young had much in common. They were both in the South Tower when the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. They were both bleeding and terrified, as well. Worse, they were both trapped.

But they would share one more commonality on that fateful day.

The gladiatorial fights of the Roman Empire have been immortalized in our culture as tremendous battles between individual combatants, whole troops, and even wild animals. Images of weapon-wielding warriors fill our minds when we look at the mighty Coliseum.

But 1,600 years ago, a frail, unarmed man stepped into the amphitheater and changed everything.