Whether we agreed with them or not, there is no denying their influence.  With the recent passing of two individuals from our society, who both inherited and left a legacy - Yolanda King and Jerry Falwell - how are we to live? What will be the legacy we leave behind if we dropped dead as they did? Perhaps you think this language is a bit unsettling… and I do not seek to diminish their deaths in any way. However, the stark reality is that everyday thousands die. One day, we will be included in that number. So, as we think about death our thoughts should be informed about how we are to live… now. What is our focus? How do we break out of the moment and live for something greater than ourselves?

Legacy is defined as: A gift of personal property by will.

What kind of personal property (mental, physical, spiritual, financial) will we leave behind for others? What kind of life will we be known for? Will our lives truly count for something greater than ourselves? How we live today will determine the kind of legacy we leave for others tomorrow.

As I walked from the train station to my job I wondered… what would happen if I dropped dead in the middle of Manhattan, right here on the corner of Broadway and 72nd St.? I would be rushed to the hospital, my family would be contacted, friends would be notified, people would grieve, services would be planned and nice things would be said about me. Sales of my book would probably increase and as the packing of my things commenced, it would be discovered that I had a lot of projects that were started but never finished.

Isn’t this the story of our lives? Projects that are started and never finished. Dreams that are drempt and never acted on. Some things left undone out of fear; most things are never done because of our own societal tendancy to always be in a hurry being busy. Traffic jams, PDA’s, Sidekicks, cell phones, internet, meetings, grocery shopping, after school, night school, 9-5 or 10-12, one job or multiple jobs, income wages that don’t match the rate of inflation… the list continues.

A friend of mine said that they feel like their 9-5 job takes the best part of their day. They get up early only to battle traffic to get to work - to yield their best ideas for a company that does not value job security - to then battle traffic to get home only to be too tired to do anything else but basically eat and go to sleep.

Do you feel like that? Like your 9-5 or 10-12 takes the best part of your day? It seems like many of the dreams that live within us go unfulfilled or at the very least are on some kind of layaway plan, because we have to work jobs to make money to pay bills to live to work jobs to make money to pay bills to live to work jobs… I’m sure you get the point. The sad truth is that lives of the individual masses basically live to make money. Many grudge their way through the weekdays in order to live on the weekend. Thus seems to be the nature of our societial structure.

But what is life? Most of us, if we do not change, will leave behind bills and debts… nothing more.

While walking this morning I felt that I did not want the intricacies of my life to be summed up as, “He was a dreamer who never finished his dreams.” I don’t want to be remembered as a guy who always had unfinished projects. My mental conclusion was: I don’t want to exist for money - money should exist for me.

What do I mean?

Are there dreams that live inside of you that you believe God has deposited there? What are you doing about them? How are you positioning yourself to be able to receive the opportunity of your purpose? Or do you not have time to seriously consider these questions because you are too busy trying to “live”?

Now what I’m NOT saying is that everyone who desires to live the dreams that live within them must quit their 9-5. What I am proposing is discovering a way of positioning so that you have time to do what is necessary for the immediate survival of you and your family and to have time to participate in what you love to do.

Dan Miller, author of 48 Days to the Work You Love, believes that work doesn’t have to be stale and univiting. He believes that both “work” and “play” can come together. - that your job and calling can be intertwined together. The world is full of many individuals who make their necessary living doing what they love… what they were born to do. What are you born to do? Do you know?
Personally, my desire is to travel, write, create, produce, invent, teach, preach, draw… I seek to glorify God and empower/impact the lives of others while engaging in the very things that put a smile on my face first thing in the morning. In order for this to happen, one of the things that needs to take place is money has to go to work for me and not just me going to work for money. Let’s face it, money may not make the world go around, but it is needed to fund any attempt to make a lasting impact in the world.

So, I’m left with the question of… if I dropped dead today would others say that I truly lived the abundant life that Jesus said was available to us all - and through this life made an impact in the lives of men, women and youth or was I merely a body living from paycheck to paycheck consuming all the resources around me?

John Eldredge asks the question in his book, The Sacred Romance, Will anyone trust the great heart of the Father, or will we shrink back in faithless fear?

There’s a lot to be said for this question. When you think about it, everything boils down to whether we are afraid or full of faith… and whether we believe in the right things. Yolanda King and Jerry Falwell illustrate for us that we can make an impact in the world and leave a legacy for those who come behind us. If you dropped dead today, what kind of legacy would you leave behind?

Let me know what you think.

-Allen Paul Weaver III-