The Legacy of the Red Socks

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about legacy. In the beginning of 2022, I lost my dear friend and longtime Pastor Max. He was my pastor when I lived in North Carolina and shaped so many things in my walk with Christ. He taught me about generosity. He taught me about having a positive attitude and he always had a perspective that saw the beauty in everything. No matter what things looked like, he always was able to see the beautiful world God created.

After I found out about his passing I was flooded with memories of his influence. I never want to forget his positive perspective. Truth be told I found myself to be more cynical than I ever thought I’d be. I felt convicted and wanted to honor his legacy, but how? Then, I remembered his socks. Pastor Max always wore red socks.

Then I had this thought: a day would never go by without his positive influence if I would begin to wear red socks too. If I did, I could start each day focused on this wonderful world God created and put myself in the mindset of impact. As I began to wear those red socks daily many memories and life lessons came to mind.

One of the amazing lessons that I learned from him came while I was listening to the very same radio station that I was working for. I was stressed, angry and the radio station I was working for was in a very toxic place! One day when my stress hit a level ten, I went to see him. He told me to turn up the radio and asked me what I heard. I’ll never forget it. What I heard was the Gospel. What I heard was hope. What I heard was God’s love and forgiveness for me. You see, my pastor knew that there were always two ways to look at something. We could choose to see life in the negative or view it from the positive. Max chose to see things through the lens of it’s a wonderful world. He helped me see that the pain I was going through behind the scenes was extremely minor compared to the ministry going forth.

That was such a great lesson for me. In a noisy messy world that’s what I want to see—a beautiful world with opportunities to share the hope of the Gospel. That’s why, since his passing, I began wearing red socks every day. I want to be reminded of the goodness of God’s creation. While I know the world can be a very dark place, I would like to be a part of the solution and shine the light in the darkness.

God loves us all and I’m thankful he saw enough in me to send Jesus His son! I also thank him for Pastor Max…because of his influence, I will never be the same. Thank you, Father, for sending such a Godly guy into my life and may I never squander the legacy of red socks! Blessings,

Frankie Morea
VP of Programming
Positive Alternative Radio