Leaving a Mark
written by David McClain, Head of School (FCS Student Life Director at the time the blog was originally published)
Okay, I’ll admit it, this is by far one of my favorite times of the year.
Football games that start to really matter.
Basketball season begins.
Cool weather blows in.
Thanksgiving with family is just around the corner.
Christmas music starts playing everywhere.
And just the whole “fall” thing—except cider—I can’t stand cider…
But one of my favorite parts is the walk from my car to the front door of the school.
In those few moments, my steps pass over some perfect, some imperfect, striking leaf imprints left in the concrete. After they fall, some lay in one spot long enough to leave their mark.
As the bright sun, harsh rain, the leaf begins to lose its beautiful color and once vibrant energy and fade slowly away. Like the innumerable leaves before it and the uncountable ones that will follow, it has fulfilled its role and leaves a mark.
As I reach the school, I’m almost always considering life and its similarities.
So many of us would wish to change things so we could continue to shine and live indefinitely.
Others mourn the annual end of warm, sunny days; some despair over the sometimes depressing and overwhelming state of the world around us—so much hurt and suffering.
Still others will look at how their own lives have been forever altered since the last season of falling leaves.
Wish and mourn as we might, we all realize the striking reality that life will continue as is—beginnings will begin and endings will end.
For so many this can be a depressing thought, but as I consider the leaf imprints, I am reminded that the goal of my life is to try and leave a mark.
I might only have influence in one small place or with one person. The effects of sin and the world around will tear at me. Eventually, my role will be finished here in this life. But I can leave a mark. I can make an impression. Many have been and many more will be, but while I am, I can make a difference—I can make an imprint.
My goal is to leave the imprint not of myself but of Christ.
In that, I will find contentment and peace in the midst of the falling leaves. In His truth, I can rest knowing that my time here matters because of Him and the permanent imprint of what He did for me on the cross all those years ago.
Not I, but Christ be honored, loved, exalted,
Not I, but Christ be seen, be known and heard;
Not I, but Christ in every look and action,
Not I, but Christ in every thought and word.
Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord,
Oh, to be lost in Thee,
Oh, that it may be no more I,
But Christ that lives in me.
— Not I But Christ, Mrs. Ada A. Whiddington