Does It Really Matter?

Does it really matter? Julie Felss Masino probably woke up this morning asking that question. If you don’t know, Masino is the CEO of Cracker Barrel, which made headlines this week after announcing the company’s plan to rebrand its 60-plus-year-old logo. Apparently, it matters to a lot of people, according to various social news outlets and the company’s declining market value.

‘Does it really matter’ type questions are a part of your everyday activities throughout your lives. Some questions and answers may have minimal impact on your life, but for others, the answer could be life-changing. For most people, the question, ‘Should I buy cotton candy at the State Fair?’ will have a simple answer, unless you happen to be diabetic! However, maybe in the scheme of life, a more important issue is thinking about, ‘It really did matter’.

Very few people know about John Harper, a simple man who loved God. I think Harper would have said, What you do really does matter. Harper, a widowed Scottish minister, along with his sister Jessie and his six-year-old daughter, Nan, decided that instead of sailing to the United States on the Lusitania, they would go a week later and purchase tickets for the maiden voyage of the Titanic, then the largest ship ever built. Harper was returning to the United States to preach a series of revivals at the Moody Church in Chicago.

Harper, along with all the passengers, was awakened during the night as the supposedly unsinkable Titanic hit an iceberg and was sinking. Harper made sure his sister and daughter were safe in a lifeboat, then he went about helping others. Amid the chaos, Harper’s calm and reassuring voice could be heard shouting, “Women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats!”  Until the final seconds of Harper’s life, when the cold and uninviting waters pulled him into eternity, he was pleading for those without Jesus to pray for salvation. Throughout the night, Harper had encouraged, comforted, and pleaded, even giving up his own life jacket to save others. John Harper knew what really mattered in life.

Nan and her aunt would be rescued. Nan would grow up in the home of John’s brother, George. His brother wrote of John, “My beloved brother was a man mighty in prayer. He was a master of this holy art. I have been with him in prayer again and again when his whole frame shook like an aspen leaf, so earnest was he in his pleadings with God for a perishing world. Little wonder hard hearts were broken and stubborn wills subdued under his ministry.”

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, understood what really matters. Dr. Dobson died last week at the age of 89, still speaking about issues important to families. My good friend and former colleague, Dave Clark, shared a quote from Dr. Dobson when Dave worked for Focus on the Family. Someone asked Dr. Dobson how he’d like to be remembered, to which he replied:

“I don’t think it’s important that I be remembered at all. I don’t think it’s of any great significance in the great scheme of things that I be remembered, except by my loved ones—my family. For those, I would hope I would be remembered as a person who gave unselfishly and who loved Jesus Christ. For me, the most important reason for living is to anticipate that moment when I stand before the Lord and I hear him say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’ That, I want more than anything in my life. That is the ultimate goal I have for living—and to take as many people with me to heaven as I possibly can.”

Does it really matter? It mattered for two men who were deserving of their punishments, as they were on their own versions of the Titanic. These were the two criminals hanging on either side of Jesus that day on Golgotha –  one rejected Jesus, the other cried out for mercy, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43)

‘Does it really matter?’ It doesn’t matter about everything, but there are a few essential things that really do matter, such as family, relationships, character, and faith. God gently reminded me last week, as I was walking out of the house to my office shortly before sunrise, of His infinite glory and what really matters. I couldn’t help but marvel at the celestial display of God’s majesty in the rare occurrence of six planets being in perfect alignment. I personalized Psalm 8 to reflect my heart on what really matters.

LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth. You have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! Even the cries of babies and children awaken my soul to Your ever-present watch over me. When I consider Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the works of Your fingers, the crescent moon, and stars which You have set in place. What am I that You should think of me, just an ordinary person, that You are concerned about me? Yet to realize You made me in Your image! You crown me with glory and majesty! You have tasked me to rule over Your creation. You have let me manage the works of Your hands; Everything!

LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Corporations will change logos, tragedies will strike, politicians will say dumb things, bad decisions will be made, and choices will get blurred, but in the end, the only thing that will really matter is letting God be God in your life! What really matters to you?

God is great!