What We Leave Behind

Recently I attended my cousin Keith’s memorial service and it got me thinking about Legacy.  At the service many people spoke of Keith’s life and their memories of him as a son, brother, father, soldier, rock music lover, honey-doer, and helicopter mechanic. Some even shared about conversations they had with him about God and Heaven.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “You can’t take it with you” which reminds us we can only hope to leave behind a part of ourselves – our legacy.  Now, a legacy can indeed be thought of as money or property as defined by Webster -1: a gift by will especially of money or other personal property. However, I think the most important legacy we leave behind is that something that becomes of part of someone else.  Here is the second definition found in Webster’s Dictionary - 2: something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor from the past.

Last summer I was talking to my dad about this topic and he had an interesting point of view. He stated the while he may not know his grandchildren’s friends and they may not know him, he has passed along his faith through me and to my children which they share with people they know.  That seems like something we should have realized but when we really sit down to ponder the far reaching implications, we see how everything we do and say, and our very being, impacts the lives of others. You can’t help it – you are a ripple in the world’s pool.

In the second definition of Legacy it uses the terms “transmitted by” and “received from”.   This tells me that some things we intentionally give to others “transmitted to” and somethings are just “received from” us by others… without our effort!!  This non-effort type of transmitting might include things like mannerisms, artistic traits, speaking patterns, walking patterns, our height or even the size of our nose.  But what if it also included ill will toward other races, twisted moral values, or speaking rudely to our spouse?  Because we are ripples in the pool, we need to be careful of what we say and do.  We are leaving a legacy, whether we intend to or not. 2 Timothy 4:1-22 ESV reads “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom - preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.  As for you, always be sober-minded, enduring to do the work and fulfill your calling.”  I am particularly drawn to the words used in this text “in season and out of season”.  In other words, are you nice to everyone or only when you’re on duty?

The terms used in the second definition from Webster (“transmitted by” and “received from”) also tells me that even if something is “transmitted” to us, we do not have to receive it.  We may not be able to control the genetic height we will attain or the initial size of our nose but we can control our behavior to spite what has been intentionally or accidentally transmitted. Transmitting can come from many different sources as well.  Friends, teachers, bosses, co-workers can influence us and transmit legacy vibes. Even if transmitted legacies do get imbedded in us we can rebuild them into better ones to pass along to our children and to those we influence. In Joshua 24:14-15 it reads “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it seems undesirable to you to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”   So, we can be encouraged that some legacies do not have to be part of us – it’s a choice.

It doesn’t matter if you came from a good home life or had some hard times as you grew up. Today, as a believer, you are only found in Christ. You are a new creation – the old is gone the new has come.  Even if the new hasn’t quite made it all the way into everything you do and say, it’s there.  And tomorrow is also a new day to start building a new legacy. Choose this day, whom you will serve. God is faithful to keep you strong and on track. Listen to what was said to Israel from God by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:5-7 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”    It doesn’t say “you ought to” – it says “you shall”!!  Doesn’t sound like there is any worry on God’s part on whether we will or we won’t so we shouldn’t worry either.

Even Jesus is praying for you.  Hear these words from John 17:20-25 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through the word of testimony. May they all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.”

Even after Keith was gone from the earth his legacy spoke to each one of us at this service through the photos we viewed, the stories shared, and listening to his favorite songs. Here is a link to one of those songs:  “Bent to Fly”.

This is our prayer and declaration Lord

Hear the cry of our hearts!!

Therefore, I intend always to remind others of Godly qualities, as you, oh Lord, keep me established in the truth. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir others up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body is inevitable. And I will make every effort, so that after my departure, others may be able, at any time, to recall the legacy of what we leave behind. (based on 2 Peter 1:12-15)