When my father died last year right before the conference I was named the executor of the estate.  Like many executors before me, I had read some articles, browsed through a book and made a file on what my responsibilities were.  Frankly, I didn’t pay much attention because the day was always going to be a little further away.  So, even though I had a file and some basics in mind none of that prepared me for the actual work required of me for the next full year.  I expected a certain amount of paperwork, certificate copying, distribution of assets, tedious legal process, a quick cruise through probate and a happy ending for everyone.  I had no preparation for what the actual responsibilities of an executor were.  I could not have imagined the complexity involved and the maddening experiences of dealing with investments, insurance companies, real estate transactions, tax forms and inventories. At times, I felt surrounded by people whose sole interest was capturing part of what my father had worked so hard to create…and I did not want  strangers to enjoy them – to use the words of Ecclesiastes.  I wanted the whole family to be part of the inheritance.  But the most pressing task was not the legal or accounting.  It was the ever growing sense of being responsible for an extended family – not just my own.  And the more complicated it became the more I thought about the word “inheritance”.  I had always thought it simply meant gift.  I thought it was describing something extra that was added to our lives as a cushion – but it doesn’t.  It’s a word whose Greek origin means an assignment or a task and an inheritor is someone who is chosen for that assignment.  We are not inheritors of a gift as much as apprentices for a craft.  It’s not a description of relief but of responsibility – and the very reason I was feeling that responsibility was that is exactly what it is meant to be.  An inheritance is added responsibility and an assignment that is shared by the whole family.  My father personified someone who had been given wealth and possessions and honor and was enabled to enjoy them.  He loved his work and he fully accepted his lot in life. Both my parents overcame enormous obstacles – and I was probably one of them. In spite of hardships and poverty earlier in his life God gave him gladness of heart. More than that, he worked hard to prepare his children to handle the assignment of wealth.  He did not prepare us merely to receive an inheritance as a gift or a supplement to our lifestyle.  While I did not understand it while he was living, I do now.  This inheritance is my assignment and I am to take it as seriously as any other work.  I had a long apprenticeship that I only recognize now for what it was.

Why am I saying this to you?  Why am I putting up the pictures at the same time?  It’s because there will be a time when all of the children and young people in these photographs will be inheritors and I want them to be prepared for their work – for their assignment.  I want The Gathering to help you do that.  We cannot do it for you because each of you will do it in your own way that will be unique to your family…but we can help.  Fortunately, I had a long life with my parents and they had years to prepare me.  That may not be true with everyone here tonight.  In fact, it probably will not be and those children will need to be even further along than you or they expect.   I want all of these young people here and on the screen to look back and see parents who enjoyed their wealth and possessions and were happy in their work.  I want them to accept their inheritance for what it is – a responsibility to be taken seriously and to be enjoyed as a gift from God.  I want them to have a sense that they have been prepared by you as apprentices and will not be surprised by the trap of sudden riches.  I suppose I want them to receive from you what I received from my own parents and that is the confidence that I have been prepared – perhaps not for the legal or accounting – but for the commitment to my responsibility to carry on the line and to prepare my own children for their own assignments.  It’s easy to say “one day” we’ll do that when they are ready but no one can ever predict that “one day” will ever come.  It’s easier to shield them from those burdens until they are ready or, more likely, we are.  But I want you to consider this week-end as a time to start preparing your children for one of the most important assignments they will ever have.  Not being an executor but being an heir – a person with a lifelong responsibility to family and God.

As I close and we begin I’d like to leave you with an illustration of another man who prepared his family and his company for the work of inheritance long before his passing..  Paul Gordon exemplified the man who receives wealth, possessions and honor and gladness of heart.  He loved his work and the people who worked with him.  He loved his family and he loved God in a way that redefined the word joy.  If we could do for our children and families what he and his wife Dottie have done for theirs we will have done well.

Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God.  He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.

Welcome to The Gathering.