Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
3/3/2022
Leaving a Lasting Legacy. Does that matter to you?
Prov. 13:22
“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children”
The inheritance talked about in Proverbs could certainly be about money, but we bequeath way more than physical possessions. What about our faith, our family heritage, our generosity, our treatment of others, our ethics…..or lack thereof……..They are all just choices we make. Think about the effects of those choices being passed down from generation to generation to generation! If you have not, I want to walk you through what should be a life-changing exercise for you.
What would you like others to say about you when you are gone? It’s your choice you know.
Your Epitaph is a memorable or poetic inscription for those to remember someone by. But I think a legacy is so much more. It isn’t some nice words someone put together at your funeral. It is a highlight reel that you crafted, planned for, and worked through so you could leave something tangible behind for your family and even to the world. You decide its foundation, its chapters, and its successes. Is it a legacy of the world or a Godly legacy?
Writing your Legacy requires thinking about your life today. Evaluating where you are now. What does the past look like to you? Are you prepared to copy that into your future? What would you change, or could you change? You are still here and you have an opportunity today to create a new and vibrant future. You get to use God’s greatest gift, your gift of choice to choose the life you want to live and the legacy you choose to leave.
In its basic meaning, a legacy is a gift of money or other personal property that’s granted by the terms of a will—often a substantial gift that needs to be properly managed. But the word is used much more broadly as well. So, for instance, much of Western civilization—law, philosophy, aesthetics— could be called the undying legacy of ancient Greece. And the rights and opportunities that women enjoy today are partly the legacies of the early suffragists and feminists.
There are certainly the negative legacies of war. The civil war, or Nazi Germany invading Russia or currently Russia invading Ukraine. Interesting that at 4 am on the morning in June 1941 Germany invaded a peaceful Russia and at 4 am Febr. 2022 Russia invaded a peaceful Ukraine.
How long have those legacies lasted?
Every person leaves a legacy. EVERY MAN! What will you choose, and work for, sweat for, and maybe even die for? When was the last time you thought about that? How can you live life without that filter? I say filter because when you have standards and goals for living, then everything you do passes through that filter. If this is who you are? If this is what I believe? If this is who I desire to become? Then I must work hard at protecting those ideals and dreams on a day-to-day basis! Little, seemingly insignificant choices pile up over the months and years and created strongholds that can be near impossible to break. And my once pure and highly thought our Godly Legacy is left looking like a war zone of debris, and chaos. Some chose to let their circumstance dictate and even ruin their life and their legacy.
I am not talking about going through a valley or the slow down of climbing a mountain. Life happens to us, but our filter, our faith, and our beliefs will influence you, but how you choose to respond to life…the filter you put in place around you will determine the person you will become and the legacy you will leave for generations to come.
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.
A Legacy is a reputation that exists outside of you. It is what people see and remember you for. Perhaps a hero to some or a villain to another or maybe just this vanilla person who never did much of anything.
Jesus built and left a legacy of love for each of us. Can I challenge you today to stop and think about your life? About who you are today and what you stand for? Not in your own mind but what might others say about you honestly? Let’s make it more current.
What have you done today,
that would make somebody miss you tomorrow?
Tomorrow let’s talk some about how you can leave a legacy that God will be proud of.
