Sometimes a person’s life makes you stop and think about your own.
☕ Today’s Brewed Thought
Today, as I sit here with my thoughts and probably a cup of coffee somewhere close by, I keep thinking about Dolly.
And the funny thing is, while I have always loved Dolly Parton and her music, she wasn’t exactly on my current playlist.
So why has her passing affected me so much?
I honestly can’t pinpoint just one reason.
Maybe it’s because every once in a while, God puts someone on this earth who just seems to have a light around them.
Not because they’re perfect.
Not because they’re famous.
But because of how they treat people.
And maybe that’s what has been bothering me—or, better yet, challenging me—about Dolly.
✝️ Love Thy Neighbor. Period.
When you strip away the rhinestones, the big hair, the incredible voice and the celebrity, there was something about Dolly that always seemed incredibly simple:
She loved people.
And isn’t that about as biblical as it gets?
Jesus didn’t say love your neighbor only if they look like you.
He didn’t say love them only if they vote like you.
Or believe exactly what you believe.
Or live the life you think they should live.
He said:
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” — Mark 12:31
Red, yellow, black and white.
Rich or poor.
Republican or Democrat.
Christian or non-Christian.
Someone you understand or someone you don’t understand at all.
Love them.
Leave the judging to God.
That’s easy to type.
It’s a whole lot harder to live.
I know I fall short.
We all do.
But Dolly seemed to understand something that I think many of us spend our entire lives trying to figure out:
If God blesses you, use those blessings to bless somebody else.
💰 Rich in Something More Important
We’ve all heard someone say:
“Money is the root of all evil.”
Except that’s not actually what the Bible says.
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” — 1 Timothy 6:10
There’s a pretty big difference.
Money itself isn’t evil.
Imagine the amount of good that can be done when God gives someone the means to help others—and that person actually listens when their heart tells them to do something.
That’s what I think about with Dolly.
Children.
Literacy.
Education.
Families.
Disaster relief.
Communities.
People who simply needed someone to give them a hand.
And something tells me the things the public knows about are probably only a small fraction of the good she did when nobody was watching.
Think about the legacy in that.
What would it be like to leave this world and have people from almost every walk of life say:
“She loved people.”
Forget the money for a minute.
That’s rich.
Dolly wasn’t just rich in money.
She was rich in love.
And you can’t buy that.
👑 About Those Rhinestones…
This is where my mind went somewhere I wasn’t expecting.
We all know Dolly loved rhinestones.
The outfits.
The sparkle.
The hair.
Nothing was exactly subtle. 😂
But then I started thinking about the crowns the Bible talks about.
And suddenly I thought:
We thought her rhinestones were over the top…just wait until she gets her crown.
Jesus said:
“Well done, good and faithful servant.” — Matthew 25:21
And 2 Corinthians 5:10 tells us:
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body…”
That’s when this stopped being only about Dolly for me.
It became about me.
🪞 What Will My Legacy Be?
Dolly’s passing has made me think about my own legacy.
And not in some depressing way.
More like a wake-up call.
Because someday people will talk about all of us in the past tense.
So what will they say?
Will they remember what kind of car I drove?
Probably not.
How much money I made?
Doubt it.
What my job title was?
Eventually nobody will care.
But they might remember how I made them feel.
And that makes me ask myself some uncomfortable questions.
Can I be a little kinder?
Can I be a little more understanding?
Can I show more compassion?
Can I listen before deciding I’m right?
Can I be less judgmental?
Can I help somebody without needing anyone else to know I did it?
The answer to every one of those questions is yes.
And I’ve got work to do.
📖 The Only Bible Someone May Ever Read
I’ve heard this saying for years:
“You may be the only Bible some people will ever read.”
That one hits differently when you really think about it.
Some people may never walk into a church.
They may never open a Bible.
They may never listen to a sermon.
But they’ll meet you.
They’ll see how you treat the waitress who’s overwhelmed.
They’ll see how you treat the person who disagrees with you.
They’ll see what you say about someone when that person isn’t in the room.
They’ll notice whether you help someone when there’s absolutely nothing in it for you.
And they’ll see whether the faith you talk about on Sunday is still visible in the way you live on Monday.
That’s a sermon without ever stepping behind a pulpit.
Dolly seemed to understand that.
☕ One Last Sip
Maybe that’s why this has affected me so much.
Maybe God sometimes uses the life of another person to hold up a mirror to our own.
And when I look into that mirror, I know there’s room for improvement.
I can love more.
I can judge less.
I can forgive faster.
I can give more freely.
I can be more patient.
I can show more grace.
And I can worry a whole lot less about whether somebody deserves my kindness.
Because let’s face it…
I don’t deserve all the grace God has given me either.
So maybe we should all strive to be a little more like Dolly.
Not because she was perfect. None of us are.
But because she seemed to understand something incredibly important:
Love God. Love people.
Give when you can.
Help when you can.
Judge a little less.
Forgive a little more.
And when God blesses you, find a way to turn that blessing into a blessing for somebody else.
Because someday, every one of us will leave something behind.
I hope my legacy isn’t measured by the things I owned.
I hope it’s measured by the people I loved.
The people I helped.
The grace I gave.
The times I chose kindness when judgment would have been easier.
And maybe—just maybe—the times someone was able to see a little bit of Jesus through me.
That’s a legacy worth leaving.
And Dolly?
We thought those rhinestones sparkled down here.
I can only imagine that crown. 👑
Until the next cup,
Scott
Scott’s Brewed Thoughts ☕
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