Leaving a Legacy

       There is recent study that states that the average American has six thousand dollars of credit card debt.  Now this does not include, house or car payments or student loan debts.  If all of these numbers were combined, it would be a very scary number.  Through out the Bible it shares that we can not serve two masters, because we will end up loving one and despising the other.  Money can become a master of our lives very easily and how we deal with our money is a window of how our relationship with God is going.  For those of you who know who Dave Ramsey is, he is an in your face Christian financial planner who strongly believes in living debt free without credit cards.  One of his other big things is changing your family tree and leaving a legacy being debt free.  His logic is that we are not strapped by debt and we are able to give of our time, talents and money more freely because we do not have to worry about making sure are debts are covered.

          Leaving a legacy means more than having a good name and living a good life.  Leaving a legacy means that we can not just live in the moment, but we also have to have to have the future in mind.  When we invest money, not only do we expect some sort of return on our money, but it takes time.  Different investments have different returns with different time lengths of time that the money needs to stay in there and the amount of risk that is involved.  This is the same with our relationships as well, because every time we time we properly invest in a relationship, it takes time and there is risk involved.  If we want to change our family tree and leave a lasting legacy, we have to make an investment that it not only takes time, but we might not see the results this side of heaven.  So how does mean to invest in other people. 

            Leaving a legacy means that we live life with intention.  As much fun as it is to walk through life living on a whim, at the end of the day, we don’t get much done.  I know if I don’t plan out my day, it usually becomes a waste and not much gets done in the form of progress.  If we don’t plan, we are a rudderless ship.  There are times where we need to rest and to take breaks, but taking breaks from breaks is not that healthy.  Are we seeking God to see what He has planned for our day and then doing it.  I know I feel really good when I have had a constructive day, even though I may be dog tired, it still feels good.   We have to live with intentional relationships too. 

            Another important thing that we need to do is to invest in other people.  God brings people into our lives that he wants us to invest into and to have them invest their lives into us.  The popular term for this is “doing life together”.  It is being involved in each others lives, in the highs, lows and everything else.  When we invest in others, we can not have the catch and release mentality that some people have when they are fishing.  The catch and release syndrome means that after a certain time, or certain goals are met, the relationship gets terminated.  The other person is not seen as a person, but as a project, or a vehicle to get to something bigger and better.  It means that most if not all of our relationships have purpose and a plan.  Its more than using people for what they have or what they can do, but seeing them for who they are and that is a Child of God created in His image. If we do not take time to foster our relationships in a healthy way, they will either end up going no where or drifting apart.

The third thing with leaving a legacy is that are we willing to be changed by God.  This may sound cheesy, but are we willing let God to leave a legacy in us.  If we want to see change in other people and lead help people in that change, we need to be changed ourselves.  Leaving a legacy means that we have to change ourselves.  We have to be willing to make that proper investment in God, in which it is for the long haul before we can stat properly investing in others.  When we are letting God fully invest in us and we reciprocate that, this is truly when we can start leaving a legacy with our friends, family, places of employment and our community.  I encourage all of us to live with that intention and leaving God’s legacy behind us, because our legacy will be nothing but tears, pain and self destruction.