Life...

Most of this post is not written by me, but by a wonderful man in my church, Jon.  He sends out daily devotionals to anyone who wants to subscribe and the devotional yesterday really touched me.  A lot of the devotionals that Jon sends seem to be exactly what I need to hear at the moment I'm reading them...

The last couple weeks God has really shown me how little control we have over our lives and how short life really is.  A friend from high school (we shot trap together) lost her brother this week in a farming accident.  It was truly a tragedy... he has two beautiful little girls who are now going to be without a father.  A really close friend of my family was also recently diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.  He is a wonderful father (of four girls) and great man.  The first three years of my life were spent in his home, and though he is a few years older than me, he and his brothers (all four of them) are like my brothers.  He is fighting and we are all very hopeful, but again, I don't understand why these things have happened, but I know that God has a plan and our lives are in His hands.  That is what gets me through the tough days.

Without further delay, here is the devotional that Jon sent yesterday...

“A good (MAN/WOMAN) leaves an inheritance”   Proverbs 13:22

Each life touches other lives in seen and unseen ways.  You don’t necessarily have to know somebody in order to experience the blessings of their legacy.  Like a simple opening of the door for someone, your influence can continue long after you’re gone.  Usually, we don’t like to think about this, because:

     (1) We associate legacies with dying, and we don’t particularly enjoy thinking about that topic
     (2) We assume that since our legacy won’t be revealed for years, we don’t need to start investing now
     (3) We feel as if we’ve little or no control over what we leave behind anyhow.

     The Bible says, A good man leaves an inheritance.  So what will yours be?  More important what’s it going to cost?  If you just want to leave material things, that’s easy.  Work hard, invest wisely and build your net worth.  But since the best gifts aren’t always handed down in your will, why not leave something more meaningful, something that points to who you were?  It’s one thing to measure your success by the money in your bank account, the size of your estate holdings, or the value of your stock portfolio.  It’s entirely another to measure it by intangibles like being a faithful, loving spouse, raising godly children, being a spiritual leader of your family, mentor or leader of your organization, and leaving the lights on when you go!  All great legacies come with a price tag. 

To move beyond mediocrity, you must invest every day in the invisible accounts of those who follow you!!  Beyond money, or the power of it, how can you use “IT” and “YOUR GIFTS GOD HAS GIVEN YOU” to impact the world around you?”