Minute Meditation: Leaving a Legacy
“You can gauge the size of a ship that has passed out of sight by the huge wake it leaves behind.” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, Harper Collins 1995)
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16 NIV)
What will be said of you when you pass from the scene? It’s a question that many of us ask. Something within us knows that our lives are more than just a 70 or 80 year span of living and dying with a bunch of haphazard events in between. There has to be meaning in order for life to have been truly lived.
Commit yourself to making lots of money, but your descendants may squander it in frivolous living. Earn a bunch of initials at the end of your name, but all that knowledge will be buried with you. Expend your time in looking good with the latest fashions, an excellent exercise regime, and age-defying plastic surgery, but all that will be left is a good looking corpse. Sounds king of morbid or even fatalistic doesn’t it?
Train a child to enjoy music and at least for another generation the world will reap the benefits. Sponsor the building of a well to supply a remote village with fresh water and the gratitude extended to you will help you sleep deep and long. Share the good news of the kingdom with someone who hasn’t heard and eternity will be changed and shaped.
All of these suggestions have one thing in common. You will leave a greater wake in your stead if you live your life for the benefit of others, rather than yourself. Invest your life in touching others and your legacy will be bigger than the life you lived.
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16 NIV)
What will be said of you when you pass from the scene? It’s a question that many of us ask. Something within us knows that our lives are more than just a 70 or 80 year span of living and dying with a bunch of haphazard events in between. There has to be meaning in order for life to have been truly lived.
Commit yourself to making lots of money, but your descendants may squander it in frivolous living. Earn a bunch of initials at the end of your name, but all that knowledge will be buried with you. Expend your time in looking good with the latest fashions, an excellent exercise regime, and age-defying plastic surgery, but all that will be left is a good looking corpse. Sounds king of morbid or even fatalistic doesn’t it?
Train a child to enjoy music and at least for another generation the world will reap the benefits. Sponsor the building of a well to supply a remote village with fresh water and the gratitude extended to you will help you sleep deep and long. Share the good news of the kingdom with someone who hasn’t heard and eternity will be changed and shaped.
All of these suggestions have one thing in common. You will leave a greater wake in your stead if you live your life for the benefit of others, rather than yourself. Invest your life in touching others and your legacy will be bigger than the life you lived.
posted by jawbone at
9:48 AM
1 Comments:
The greatest legacy that a family member left me was a Christian heritage. I had the blessing of watching this person live their life unto the Lord. I was blessed more by this than any other material inheritance that could have been left to me.
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Anonymous, at 5:39 PM
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