What the legacy of a Christian should look like
Do you ever stop and think about how temporary life is? I know I do. Once you hit the age of 25, you have roughly 20,000 days remaining in your lifetime. That doesn't seem like a long time when you read it that way does it? Taking this a step further, fast forward 20,000 days after you are gone, it will be very rare that your name is mentioned. (Depressing huh? Keep reading; I promise it gets positive!)
What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. - James 4:14
One of my biggest struggles I had going into my early twenties was thinking about how little time I had to live. I wanted to leave a legacy; I wanted to do something that people would remember me for. I can remember at one point saying to my girlfriend (Who is now my wife; score!) that I would not be okay with dying if I had not left a legacy and a name for myself. I was always struggling with discontentment because I didn't want to miss out on anything in life. I never wanted to be planted in one place because I was scared of what I could be doing if I was somewhere else.
Related Post: Create a legacy of faithfulness.
At this point in my life, I did not know that God had actually placed that feeling inside of me. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that God has set eternity in the human heart. Over the past few years, I have realized that the problem wasn't that I was stuck on creating a legacy. The problem was that I had been looking to the wrong place to leave this legacy. Without a proper understanding of our calling as Christians, each of us will have a desire to create a “legacy” in our own way. For me, it was to be remembered by people in this life instead of known by God in Heaven.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. - Colossians 3:2
The question that I would internally ask myself in regards to legacy changed from “What can I leave here for myself?” to “What can I leave here for God so when I am in eternity, I can step into my full legacy with Him?” When I get to Heaven, I do not want to hear God say to me “I had many planned for you; your entire legacy waiting here for you here with me in eternity… What happened?”
For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:10
Legacy is not intended to be built on this earth. Your legacy is in heaven with the Father. We cannot allow ourselves to get caught up in trying to build something on this earth. It will only get lost to the pages of history. What we do on this earth needs to be driven by our focus on eternity with the Father. Focus on your eternal legacy with God, not the short time that we have here.
God has set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what He has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. - Ecclesiastes 3:11-12
The call of every Christian is to make our lives about someone else; it's never about us. I encourage you today, don't be so focused on your own plans that you cannot help someone else fulfill theirs. Our mission in this short life is to help people and to enjoy our lives while doing so. Let's be reminded today to keep our focus on our eternal legacy, not what we are able to gain in this short life.[easy-tweet tweet="Your legacy is not on earth, it is in heaven with the Father." via="no" hashtags="no"]