I’m dying.
I don’t know how much time I have left.
The doctors can’t tell me when I will “slip the surly bonds of earth.”
I realized that the life I have been living had NOT been the life I want to be remembered by. I don’t want to be known as the “Christian Jedi” Star Wars guy, the web designer, or the guy who struggled with on-again-off-again depression.
I want to be remembered for more.
And you are dying too.
You don’t know how much time you have left.
No one knows.
You are a car accident, incurable disease, or another mishap away from eternity.
Are you building the life and legacy you want?
If so, congratulations. If you aren’t, no worries, you can start your journey today.
The Desire To Live Life Of Purpose
During the 14 days to “flatten the curve”, which has now stretched past 700, I realized that I was living the same life 90% of the time.
The government-demanded lockdown only changed about 10% of what I did in life.
In-person meetings became video meetings. For months, church services were held in my living room.
What didn’t change was the work I was doing.
I was still writing devotionals based on Star Wars and helping people with their websites. I thoroughly enjoy both of these income streams.
What I didn’t like was that I was on autopilot. I was NOT living life with real purpose.
The purpose I was living for was to provide for my family which is honorable, if not temporary. Every week we needed to buy groceries and handle to mundane aspects of living in America.
What was missing was a purpose bigger than myself and my family.
Day after day I look for “something more” just as the man in Steven Curtis Chapman’s song “More TO The Life.”
He takes care of his family, he takes care of his work,
And every Sunday morning he takes his place at the church;
And somehow he still feels a need to search,
But life just goes on.
But there’s more to this life than living and dying,
More than just trying to make it through the day;
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see,
And there’s more than this life alone can be.
Finding Purpose
In Stephen Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People“, tells us that Habit 2 is “Begin with, the end in mind.”
Covey tells us, “Begin With the End in Mind is based on imagination—the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint.”
This seems significantly similar to faith as Hebrews 11:1(ESV) describes it. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
When we believe in something, have faith in something, we create it in our minds first and are convinced that it can be achieved.
Finding purpose outside of ourselves is the only place we can find purpose.
Steven Curtis Chapman’s song continues the search for purpose by declaring where we find it.
So where do we start to find every part
Of what makes this life complete;
If we turn our eyes to Jesus well find
Lifes true beginning is there at the cross where He died.
Once we, as Romans 10:9-10 tells us, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
When we repent of our sins and become part of God’s family, we will be able to talk with God the Father, who is the creator of all things, see Genesis 1, and learn of what He is calling us to do.
Ephesians 2:10(ESV) tells us, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Creating A Legacy
The word legacy is primarily defined as “a gift by will, especially of money or other personal property.”
I prefer the second definition, “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.”
Yes, I want my children to inherit money and personal property for me. Proverbs 13:22a(ESV) tells us, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.”
But what I want to leave behind is more than that.
I want them to receive my values and belief in God.
I want others in my life to remember me as a person of value; love, truthfulness, compassion, and helpfulness.
Practical Steps To Creating Your Legacy
Beginning with the end in mind. This means writing out how you would want to be eulogized at your funeral.
The reticular activating system (RAS) is a network of neurons located in the brain stem. The area is about the size of your thumb.
But like so many things in our body, it does more than the size would indicate. Like Master Yoda said, “Judge me by my size, do you? And well, you should not!”
Your RAS will look for information that is out there, knowing that your brain can only process less than 1% of all the information and stimuli it receives.
It keeps what’s important. And let’s the “non-important” pass on by.
If we tried to process every bit of information, we would probably go insane because there is too much information to process.
It’s like having 100 browser tabs open, and you don’t know where the music is coming from. Eventually, your computer would just crash. The same goes for your mind.
So what does the RAS have to do with creating your eulogy or legacy?
Like the old computer coder saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.”
Blain Oelkers gave a TEDx talk at Fountain Hills Salon, introducing the acronym WYTAYBA.
It stands for “What you think about you bring about.”
If you want to live the legacy you desire, you need to think about it daily.
But up reminders of what you want your legacy to be.
The more you tell yourself what you want to be remembered for, the more that will influence your decisions, and step by step, you will move along the journey to leaving the legacy you want.
