What's Your 7 Heaven
Jan 18, 2018
If you’re a Minnesotan, ‘7 Heaven’ requires no explaining.
But if you’re not from here, not a football fan, or have spent the past week secluded on a remote island or hiding under a rock, you might not recognize ‘7 Heaven’ as the name of the final play that saved the day. The call that gave us a Minneapolis Miracle. The last-second pass and epic catch that turned certain loss into legend.
No matter what happens this Sunday in the NFC championship game, the legacy of Case Keenum and Stefon Diggs will be a restored faith in the Minnesota Vikings.
I’m thinking about legacy a lot lately. It was two years ago now that my father entered hospice care. Crazy, but Sunday’s game reminded me of the five years that followed Dad’s cancer diagnosis. Surgery, treatment and a promising early lead, with a few surmountable setbacks. But then a stroke and metastasis that nearly robbed Team Ron of our joy. And finally, an epic finish at his passing that renewed our faith in the resurrected Christ.
Unlike Keenum and Diggs, my Dad’s legacy wasn’t legendary. It was simply faithful. He was a farmer who depended on the Creator, but worked every day as though Jesus could be back tomorrow. He took his plays from the Good Book, as did his parents and his grandparents before them. Dad’s ‘7 Heaven’ was a deliberate, consistent intention to model and pass on the life of faith to his children and his grandchildren. Legendary? No. But in today's world, possibly heroic.
What’s YOUR ‘7 Heaven’? What plays will you drill day after day so that the next generation will catch the joy of knowing Jesus and run confident in God's love for them? What is your legacy going to be?
“We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.”
Psalm 78:4