One of the many lessons I learned in Boy Scouts while camping is to always leave a campsite better than you found it. After a weekend of camping, all the Scouts in my troop would form a line and walk throughout the camp to pick up trash and clean up the area. Though it was not the most fun activity of the trip, I’m sure the next group to camp there was glad that we cleaned up the site. Within our lives we have many different campsites, some that we stay at for a while, and others that we leave quickly. No matter which campsite we are currently staying, it is important that we leave it better than we found it.
As I was reading Philip Keller’s book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, I was struck by the reflection on Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life”. The author asks if this verse can be true of us in our lives. Are we people who demonstrate goodness and mercy to others throughout our time on earth? I invite you to reflect on the different places you have lived and worked in your life. Could other people trace a trail of goodness and mercy following you as you moved from place to place? Are we leaving a legacy of following Christ and leading others to Him? It can be difficult to leave a good path of Christ’s love. We often rush so much from place to place that the last thing we think about is our impact on the situation. Sometimes, we can become so focused on the task at hand that we forget to be conscious of how our actions affect those around us.
On the other hand, some people care too much about the legacy. Often we hear about the legacies of celebrities, how many championship rings they own, how many number one hits they sang, how many Oscars they won, and their memorable, distinctive characteristics. It’s not just about what they did, but how they did it in their own unique, way.
So where do we draw the line between not caring about what people think about us and caring too much about what people think about us? I think Nicole Nordeman’s song, Legacy, sums up rather well what we should strive for our legacy to be, something that directs others not to ourselves but rather towards Christ.
“I want to leave a legacy, how will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to you enough
To make a mark on things? I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who blessed your name
Unapologetically and leave that kind of Legacy”
Just like the person who cleans the campsite does not know who benefits from this good deed, we may not see the fruits of our charity towards others. Let’s strive to be people who seek to bring God’s goodness to every area of our lives and those around us May the trail that we leave be blazed with signposts of God’s love so that others may be directed towards God and our heavenly home.
2 thoughts on “Leaving a Legacy”
Bob, good reference when listening to Nicole Nordeman’s song, Legacy. I remember seeing long ago that when we die, on our headstone will be our name, date of birth, date of death seperated by a dash, and the dash represents our legacy, it will be the stories of our lives told by others who knew us. We have no control over our birth or death but do have control over the legacy we leave behind. It is up to each of us to decide what that dash will mean to others.
I missed this when you posted it and just stumbled across it. I really like the lesson to be considered. I used to work with a Nurse who was smart and funny and good at her job…she was also so mean and critical she left a path of pain and destruction (amongst peers, not patients) in her wake. She is retired now…she could have left a legacy behind her but she didn’t and now its too late. I have used the experience of working with her to motivate me to encourage and build up the nurses I teach. I jump at the chance to work with Nursing Students to teach them the right way to care for grieving moms and dying babies before someone else shows them the wrong way. If I were run over by a bus tomorrow, I trust that one of “my” nurses would carry on my work in kindness and love.
I have a colleague in Milwaukee who does what I do and we shared stories of women who didn’t understand who we were or what our job actually is who say “that lady, send that lady back, I need her”. It is an honor to be “that lady” ….she and I joked that our husbands could have “That Lady” carved onto our gravestone and it would be rather fitting