What We Leave Behind

When your name is Georgia, people often sing to you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard renditions of Ray Charles’ “Georgia on My Mind.” But my name has nothing to do with the song or the state. My parents named me after my dad’s father, George.

While I am proud to bear his name, I’m humbled to continue Grandpa George’s greater legacy. In quiet, faithful ways, he showed the people he ministered to that commitment to the good news of the gospel is more important than anything else he could accomplish in life.

A Faithful Legacy

My grandpa George died before I was born. But since he wanted to be a chemistry teacher, my love of teaching science may literally be in my genes. His parents didn’t have money to send him to college, so he chose instead to work at the local glass factory where he was employed his entire life.

Though money prevented him from being a chemistry teacher, he taught Sunday school at his church, right across the street from the glass factory. My dad told me that Grandpa would get off from working the night shift, walk across the street to teach the high school boys’ Sunday school class, and then head home to sleep.

One of Grandpa’s former Sunday school students, Rex Kern, wrote an article for Guideposts magazine titled, “The Way I Play the Game.” Rex was the star quarterback of The Ohio State University’s national champions football team in 1968—go Bucks!—and played professional football for the Colts and Bills. Instead of being filled with stories of players, coaches, or trainers that inspired Rex, most of the article was about my grandpa.

Rex Kern’s article about George Hickman, published in Guideposts magazine. Rex played for The Ohio State from 1968–1970.

Rex talked about the importance of reading his Bible and said, “This practice of Bible-reading, and a whole practical insight into faith, I owe mostly to one man. . . . His name was George Hickman.”

Reading those words brings tears to my eyes. I’m sure many Sundays Grandpa was exhausted from work and probably felt like he wasn’t being heard or having any kind of impact on his group of teenage boys—but he was!

Rex elaborated on my grandpa’s teaching style:

He was a simple guy who talked our language and when he talked we listened. He had a way of taking that Bible and making it come alive.

I can still get excited at remembering how George Hickman read to us the adventures of those incredible men [in the book of Acts], the stories of shipwreck and narrow escape, the surging crowds, the riots as topical as today, the violence, the beauty, the miracles.

George could also explain his own witness in such an unvarnished way that you could understand it without any trouble at all.

Rex also related how my grandpa would talk sports with him and the other boys and attend their games. More than just a teacher, Grandpa was also a mentor and friend. That is another important part of his godly legacy: he didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk. He lived out the gospel in word and deed.

The Good Fight

Grandpa didn’t believe the Bible was just a bunch of stories. He knew it was the true Word of God, and he was willing to fight for its truth. I know this because of a letter he wrote to my father in the early 1960s, discussing curriculum in the Methodist church he attended. Grandpa wrote,

We have a big meeting on the [Sunday school] literature coming up this week. Pray for us. [Name withheld] told me this morning that he has found out that those who have written our literature do not believe that the Bible is necessarily the inspired word of God. I hope he has proof. If he has, we have the battle [against the unbiblical curriculum] won, and I do mean battle. . . . The lessons have wonderful titles but they do not always have the teaching to back it up. When this happens I turn to the inspired word of God and teach with [God’s] help.

A Failing Legacy

Sadly, the disregard for the truth of God’s Word has continued.

As my grandpa knew all too well, some of the greatest battles are fought within the church itself. I can remember my father telling me of similar battles he fought with church curriculum. Sadly, the disregard for the truth of God’s Word has continued within much of the Methodist denomination.

In 2023, headlines proclaimed that a quarter of United Methodist congregations were leaving the denomination due to debates over same-sex marriage and the ordaining of LGBTQ+ clergy. And in May of 2024, the United Methodist church reversed its long-standing ban on gay clergy, also allowing the church to officiate same-sex weddings. This compromise is the fruit of a denomination that stopped believing the truth of God’s Word many decades ago. This is also a legacy—but an egregious one of sin and error.

Many churches and Christians adopt woke ideas because they’re earthly minded. They care more about what others think of them and what they can gain in this world instead of the new heavens and earth to come. Not my grandpa!

One of the most important parts of George’s godly legacy was to teach young people to be eternally minded.

Rex said Grandpa told those Sunday school boys, “You know, fellows, if you have faith, there is nothing to be afraid of in this world, even death. In fact, especially death.” One of the most important parts of Grandpa’s godly legacy was to teach young people to be eternally minded. He wanted them to store up treasures in heaven and not on earth (Matthew 6:19–21).

Called to Leave a Legacy

The evolutionary perspective considers legacy a paradox. Why spend resources to help the next generation if there is no benefit to yourself in the present? Some researchers suggest a good legacy increases the chances that offspring will find mates and reproduce. Others think that being remembered positively is something people strive for simply to feel good about themselves in the present. Still others believe that by looking to future generations, humans might be more inclined to invest in long-term research to find solutions to problems such as climate change.

But what is the point of reproducing, feeling good, or saving the climate if there is no ultimate meaning and purpose in life? It’s not a legacy paradox but a legacy dead-end.

Far from merely ensuring they are remembered past the grave or simply offering solutions to future generations, Christians have a much deeper calling: God commands us to leave a godly legacy. Deuteronomy 6:7 states, “You shall teach them [the commands of God] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Everything about our lives teaches our children—what we say, what we do, what we write, how we interact with them and others. What do we want our children’s memories of us to be?

I strive to continue the godly legacy of my grandpa George and my dad as I battle for truth within the church and culture through my work with Answers in Genesis (AiG). But while I’m proud of my professional achievements and my work for AiG, my most important ministry is to raise my daughter to love God and live for him. May we all commit to telling “the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done” (Psalm 78:4).