Friday, January 29, 2016

Do you know the muffin man?

Scripture: Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

DO YOU KNOW THE MUFFIN MAN?

This email was sent around the entirety of the Cortland Regional Medical Center (a local hospital)

I am very sad to report that our “muffin man” volunteer Ken Brong has unexpectedly passed away. I know many of you saw him just yesterday, it is truly a shock. I know that over the years he has touched many lives here at CRMC in his various volunteer capacities, I know that CRMC, the community and the Volunteer Department especially will not be the same without him. Do you know the muffin man? I did, and he was a great man.

Notes like this have circled various community service agencies in this last week.

I am lucky to also have known the muffin man. Ken was a great man- though you wouldn't initially know it by looking at him. He didn't drive a Mercedes, didn't live in a McMansion or wear designer clothes. He instead looked like a very normal grandfather figure. Yet agencies and people all over, even on multiple continents, grieve his passing.

He was a man that shook the earth. Not by the force of his hands, but instead in love and service. He was humble, kind and steadfast. He walked with integrity and lived a servants life. Yet his impact has been great.

Ken volunteered for a dozen local agencies. Everything from delivering muffins to raise money, giving tours at a local history museum, and dedicating his life towards Alzheimer rehabilitation and awareness. He hosted children from around the world in his home, taught kids to drive and was always a part of whatever was happening in service to others around our small city.  

Why is this important to you?
If you are reading this, you probably never knew the muffin man. But you have an opportunity to a muffin man or woman. To receive the torch from people like Ken and to carry through our generation To live in love, and to support and spread love in a very real and special way.

As we are into the end of January, we are in a season of personal re-evaluation. A time when we dedicate ourselves to our goals, to becoming a new person. Will you look into the mirror with me, and take a look at the legacy that we will leave behind? What we will be remembered by, or, how we will make this world a better place than how we came into it. What can we do to get involved? Effect social change? Build disciples for Jesus Christ?

Its never to late to start to make the hands and feet of God move.

God Bless!
Alan McCormick