June and I both studied piano from the age of 8. I quit lessons during my senior year of high school. June still studies! On June 1, her beloved teacher, Sara McDaniel, passed after an 18-month battle with a rare cancer.

Yesterday, we attended her memorial service where the pastor shared the succinct summary of Sara’s life given by his church’s music director, Shazia Ali, one of Sara’s adult students:

Sara made career musicians.

Sara was a concert-level pianist in her own right. During lessons, she would sight-read music it would take her adult students months to learn. She performed regularly with the Colorado Springs Chamber Orchestra and with members of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, the Air Force Academy Band, and others. You can see a sample here. The playing starts about 1:35 in and goes for nearly 10 minutes.

But her lasting contribution was not in making music herself but in helping others make music.

Sara taught with a rare mix of precision and kindness. She guided her students with care, always encouraging them to find their voice. Her impact rippled through generations of musicians across the state and beyond. Besides teaching privately, she also taught at…Pikes Peak State College (formerly Pikes Peak Community College…. – From the memorial service bulletin

Let me pause here. She could have taught anywhere. She chose to teach at Pikes Peak Community in order to give students from less wealthy backgrounds the same opportunities as those more fortunate. She taught there since 1985. Continuing from yesterday’s bulletin…

After semi-retirement, she began organizing monthly recitals for her advanced older students.

Most of those recitals were for the participants only, but once a year, in December, we spouses could come.

I share all this to inspire all of us to invest in others. Jesus did, Paul did. Our best contribution will be the people who are making a difference after we’re gone. And make no mistake, we will be gone…

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. (Hebrews 7.23, ESV)

I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world…For I have given them the words that you gave me…I am praying for them…As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. – Jesus, John 17.6 – 9, 18, ESV

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)