“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life . . . so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
Does the name Oceola McCarty ring a bell with you? To jog your memory, or in case you missed the flurry of publicity some years back, Oceola McCarty of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, a “washer woman” with only a sixth grade education, gained notoriety following her death at age 91 when it was revealed she had left her estate of $150,000, an astonishing amount for someone of such modest means, to The University of Southern Mississippi to establish an endowment to fund scholarships for deserving students in need of financial assistance.
A Google search reveals that “McCarty never owned a car; she walked everywhere she went, pushing a shopping cart nearly a mile to get groceries. She rode with friends to attend services at the Friendship Baptist Church. She did not subscribe to any newspaper and considered the expense an extravagance. Similarly, although she owned a black-and white-television, she received only broadcast transmissions. In 1947, her uncle gave her the house in which she lived until her death. She also received some money from her aunt and mother when they died, which she placed [in] savings” as her mother had taught her.
But let’s be realistic. While $150,000 is an amazing estate for someone to leave behind who had to rely on doing other people’s laundry to make a living, yet in today’s inflated economy with college tuitions being what they are it doesn’t seem that $150,000 would go very far. But imagine if it only helped a few earn a college education who otherwise would not have been able to do so, and those few became doctors, nurses, teachers, and entered other professions that saved lives or helped others to also pursue higher goals, would Oceola’s estate not have multiplied, in a sense, way beyond its original value?
For most of my life, I’m afraid, I have misunderstood what it means to be successful, believing it to mean rising to the top of the corporate ladder, becoming wealthy or famous, the top expert in one’s field. Not that those things aren’t good, and we need people pursuing them. But if we really want to make an impact, the Apostle Paul says instead to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life . . . so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders.” God bless Oceola McCarty. She certainly won my respect.