The Responsibility of Legacy

I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about the word legacy. I went to a Christian based Leadership Conference recently and I heard this term as a common theme woven throughout nearly every speaker. Perhaps it was what I kept hearing over and over, because it is one of the underlining areas I have been struggling with and feeling the gentle prompting from God about lately. I’ve heard His continued and quiet whisper that I need to be conscious of my actions and reactions lately, knowing I’m in pretty major need of some self improvement on.

What legacy am I leaving behind when I look in the rear view mirror of my life? What will people remember about me after I’m gone? What am I doing today that will still matter tomorrow?

For me personally, it’s also a few questions further – what legacy am I leaving at my work, what legacy am I leaving within my family, AND do both of those areas mirror each other, or do I need to make changes to alter that so I am succinctly the same person wherever I am?

Over the last several years I have often found myself wondering why God has continued to align me in various leadership-ish type rolls, as I personally don’t often feel that I am a very good leader. I’m great at coordinating, connecting, and organizing, but leading… phew, I don’t know. I daily fear and acknowledge that I’m actually probably fairly weak in the leadership arena.

I often think of my most important leadership roll right now, and that is the roll I carry within my family. If I can’t lead my family well, I surely can’t lead anyone outside the walls of my family well.

For me, the leadership roll within marriage and parenting is hard. Really hard, and it’s one I personally feel I am failing at miserably. I’m caught in a daily struggle of not good enough and trying to grasp at the grains of time that continue to just slip through my fingers in lost opportunities and failed attempts.

I am not in control of anyone under my leadership wing, either within the internal ring of family life or the external ring of my work and worldly life, but I am responsible to them for trying to be the best me I can be which in turn can positively influence how they can become the best they can be. I cannot change them, but I can change myself.

Am I making others better when they are around me, or am I hindering, hurting, and failing them?

I’m 41 years old. I would love to hope that God will grant me another 41 years, and that I am currently sitting at the very middle point of my life. I can only hope that the line continuing forward on my life’s empty timeline is still quite long. Of course I don’t know the number of days left and the date in which I will enter Heaven. I know that the trials, the temptations, the state of my health, and the consequences of others will also affect my near or far off future. I earnestly pray God will bless me with another 41 years of quality life, but I just don’t know. I may not get another moment before my time is up, I may not get another day to right my wrongs, to improve my failings, to make a difference, and to love better than I was able to yesterday.

Today is the day, now is the moment. We cannot continue to ignore, overlook, or stumble along the path of unaware mediocrity. As Lou Holtz states, “In this world you’re either growing or you’re dying so get in motion and grow.”

So I’ve started asking myself, what do I need to do in the next 41 years to leave a better legacy than what I’ve created in the first 41 years? What do I need to do right now to start improving my character and overall life so that the God I serve, the family I love, and the world I cherish will be more influenced from me?

Don’t worry, this isn’t a ten point post about what qualities and habits make a good person with a strong and rich legacy, I’ll leave that research up to you. It isn’t going to spell out all of my personal strengths and shortcomings and the initial three key areas I’ve identified to focus on for improvement for myself. What is within every one of us is going to be different than that within someone else. God made us each special and unique, with our own set of strengths, weaknesses, tendencies, agendas, intensity levels, and quirks. What we create and season with those ingredients is entirely up to us.

I just want to challenge myself, and each of you, to spend time at least thinking about your own legacy, your own traits and personalities. The meat and bones of what makes you who you are and why you do the things you do. How are you being a good leader in your work? How are you being a good leader in your home and families? Is the way you live making the world a better place? Are you taking the time to really talk with, pray, and listen to the quiet voice of God? Are you where you are supposed to be and doing the things you were created to do, in a strong and healthy manner, to help fulfill the mission and purpose God granted you life and breath for?

If you are caught up in the chaos, chatter, and crazy of everyday life, like I am, know you are not alone. Also know that God is calling out to you, pulling on you, pushing against you, waiting for you, just like He is with me, in hopes we will listen, hear, submit and continually grow and change, so that each and every one of us can raise the bar of influence, grace, and ability to love those around us better through the big and the small tasks of the daily grind, so that together, all our lives and all our stories can be woven together to create a family, a society, a world filled with hope, love, and intentional integrity.

May our families look to us and find the love, direction and encouragement they need to find their own success. May others around us look at us and want to know us and be like us. May God look at us and smile.

May we been seen today and remembered tomorrow. May the lives and stories we choose to intentionally live today leave the rich and impactful legacy God created us to fulfill long after we are gone tomorrow.

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