My Grandpa was a peanut farmer on an 80-acre patch of land in southern Oklahoma. But to make ends meet, he was also a carpenter. He built the house that he and my Grandma lived in for almost their entire married lives. And he built a lot of other things for them and for other people. He was the toughest man I ever knew, and he was an artist, albeit one who never would have accepted that description of himself.

He owned an old tractor, a hammer, a hand saw, a hand drill, and an old guitar, and with those tools, in his way, he shaped the world.

No doubt there is some land and several buildings out there with his fingerprints all over them, but when I say that my Grandfather shaped the world, that’s not exactly what I'm talking about.

With his hands and those tools, and even with his guitar, my grandfather cared for and shaped his family and the people around him. And it mattered.

To this day, even his grand-kids and great grand-kids are hard workers, and most of them like to play guitar and build things. And that is not a coincidence. That’s just how legacies work.

But my Grandpa's most important tool in the shaping of his legacy was not his farm, or his hand tools, or even his beloved guitar. I think my Grandpa's most important tool in the shaping of his legacy was his old black King James Bible. He had a pair of reading glasses that sat on top of that Bible, and he would sit down in his worn blue jeans and button-up shirt, and he would take off his straw cowboy hat and put on those reading glasses, and he would pick up that Bible, and he would read. Just read.

And then he would talk about God. Not with the precise elegance of an academic, or even as a man with a legacy to build, but with the gentle humility of a man with strong hands and an eight grade education. He talked about God with great respect, but He didn't talk about God like He was far away. To the contrary, one got the impression that God was even more active on that little farm than my Grandpa was. And as it turns out, my Grandfather’s wisdom on that point greatly surpassed that of many a theologian. For my Grandfather God was not a subject to be studied or a deity to be appeased, God was the Lord to be worshiped, and his Savior to be walked with and worked with and talked to every day.

At the end of the day, my grandpa was just a person trying to make it in the world, and the natural result of his life is that the world, and especially my world, is very different because of Him.

Consider with me for a moment today how the world is different because of You. Think about the tools with which you are shaping the world, and ask yourself if the ones you use the most are actually the ones that are going to have the most effect.

And talk to somebody about God today. Talk about the things you know. Talk about the things you don't. Look for the ways that God is working far more actively in your life than you are. And take some advice from a wise old farmer and pick up a Bible and read it.