DOWN HOME: A generous life, lived for Christ

Funerals of saints bless the living. That definitely was the case Nov. 13, when family and friends gathered to celebrate the life and witness of Mary Kerr Johnston Piper, known far and wide as Miss Katy.

Funerals prompt two responses in my soul.

First, I cannot fathom how unbelievers face death. Humanly speaking, death is the ultimate permanence. How anyone contemplates what’s next without assurance of salvation and promise of God’s presence compromises comprehension.

And second, when we gather to remember the life of a Christian, I cannot help but rejoice. This especially is true when that person lived a long life, which was true for Mrs. Piper, who was 93. Deep down, it’s also true for Christians who are generations younger, because where they went far exceeds where they were. Of course, we grieve because we will miss them. We sometimes grieve because their earthly lives seemed to hold so much more. But we really grieve for ourselves and our loss, not for them and theirs.

Some funerals, such as Mrs. Piper’s, transcend those feelings; they point toward particular truth. At her memorial service, we celebrated the grace, beauty and power of a life totally committed to Christ. Or, as she would have said and speakers acknowledged, two lives totally committed to Christ. Her memorial would not have been complete without remembering and thanking God for her husband, Paul, who preceded her to heaven almost nine years ago.

God gave the Pipers the ability to make money. They transformed a John Deere dealership and plow factory into a diversified company with 1,000 employees and 15 manufacturing plants. But God also shaped their tender hearts with the passion to use their wealth as an engine for multiplying ministry and presenting the Christian gospel around the world.

At Mrs. Piper’s funeral, longtime friend Bill Nichols noted they started their business with $17.50 and achieved their dream of making annual distributions of $17.5 million through their foundations, Christ Is Our Salvation and Christian Mission Concerns. Kent Reynolds, executive director of the foundations, said they gave away about 90 percent of all they ever earned to missions, education, benevolence and other Christian organizations. He cited 34 of them, including Baptist Standard Publishing and the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and their biography lists more than 90.

“The word that best describes Katy and Paul Piper is ‘generous,’” Reynolds said. Nichols reported Mrs. Piper’s life reflected spiritual sensitivity, simple contentment and humble faithfulness. These traits and their generosity will continue, because they trained their family well.

You and I probably couldn’t give away $17.5 million in many lifetimes, much less one year. But we can be faithful stewards—a worthy legacy.