I am on a train heading to Sacramento. It’s December 31st 2017. Last day of the year, how did we get here?
On average, a heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. God willing, if we end this year we would have been given 35 million heartbeats. Stunning, isn’t it? What did you do with those 35 million heartbeats? How many of those 35 million heartbeats did you complain in or count your blessings?
Each day, on average you are given 16 breaths per minute. This is 960 breaths an hour, 23,040 breaths a day, and 8,409,600 a year.
And then at church we sang these words:
“It’s Your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise
We pour out our praise
It’s Your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise to You only…” Great Are You Lord by All Sons and Daughters.
So we pour out our praise to You only…
You and I are not making it to the end of year because “we ate healthy and exercised”. No, we are making it to the end of the year because God in His mercy still has a purpose for your life and mine. Even if you don’t believe in the existence of God and His ruling on the earth, it doesn’t change the fact that He is still God and that He alone decides if you will have your next breath.
When you and I live consciously knowing that our end will come, we live different. We live in surrender to what we can’t understand. We let go of little things that don’t matter. We love hard the people God has put in our lives. And we pursue what will matter after this life.
Not carnality but Christ
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4
Seek those things which are above… Seek the things that will matter even after you are gone…
This may sound silly to say but some of us live as if we are immortal. We don’t rest and we are always on the go, go, go as if the world would literally stop if we stopped chasing the things of this life.
One thing is for sure though, no one on their deathbed wished they made more money; no one wished they worked more hours, or that they used others to advance their agenda.
This is where legacy comes in. How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered for things that won’t amount to anything in the next life? What do you want people to say at your funeral?
While giving a speech at my graduation party last year, I remember saying with tears in my eyes this: “When I die I want to be remembered by having loved God and people. Period.” I want my legacy to be loving God and loving people. Really, it’s that simple for me.
How would we live today if our legacy was always front and center in all we do? I have a hunch of what we would do, we would hug people we love longer, and mutter more “I love you’s” to people we love; we would sacrifice more to see those who are suffering live in freedom.
Seek those things which are above… Seek the things that will matter even after you are gone…
What are those things which are above? Colossians 3:12-17 lays it out for us:
Character of the New Man
“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:12-17
As people of the Cross, we are holy and beloved. Isn’t that a beautiful truth? I am holy. and. beloved. Yes, the blood of Jesus Christ shed on Calvary makes me holy and beloved. I am not, and will never be holy and beloved because of my deeds.
And this will be our legacy, that we are people who are rich in:
- Tender mercies
- Kindness
- Humility
- Meekness
- Longsuffering
- Bearing with one another
- Forgiving one another
- Love most importantly
“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” Love is the bond of perfection because it never stops giving of itself and it never stops forgiving.
Furthermore, we also ought to be people who:
- Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly
- teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
- sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord
- do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Everything we do should be done unto the Lord. Everything we do should be in consideration of our legacy.
This past Friday while at work, the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart this truth: “Your job is not about your job. Your major is not about your major.” Whatever job you have, whatever major you picked, these things are temporary. Your job and your major will not matter even a bit in heaven. So your job is not about your job, your job is essentially about glorifying God.
We have got to have a God perspective in all we do. And this implies, no job is “insignificant” and no major is “meaningless” if we have God’s perspective.
“Work, for the Christian, looks like a kind of brilliance. It looks like a person using her particular agency to glorify God first and foremost, to serve her fellow human beings, and to contribute to society in a way that promotes the beauty of human flourishing. Aristotle defined human flourishing as the innate potential of each individual to live a life of enduring happiness, penetrating wisdom, optimal well-being, and authentic love and compassion. Don’t think that fulfillment escapes God’s definition of work for us… Fulfillment, however, occurs only when we live inside God, within his beam of goodness. We find fulfillment through serving, giving, and experiencing contentment. When our perspective of work changes form what benefits us to how we can glorify God and serve others, fulfillment comes in the most unselfish way possible-through the death of self (Pg 135).” Home Behind the Sun by Timothy Willard and Jason Locy
What do you want your legacy to be?
The very same things God wants us to seek after are what ultimately brings us fulfillment. Isn’t this something to behold? That God wired us in a way that what He wants us to pursue is what fulfills us!
The serving. the giving. the dying to self: this is how we are meant to come alive. I read the above part about work last week and it will forever change how I see work.
Any work my hands will find to do will be meaningful work if I aim to glorify God and serve others through it.
2018 will roll around in few hours.
God, may my heart beat harder after you.
May I chase You more intentionally.
May I forever hold on to truth, which is ultimately holding on to You.
Lord, I pray for boldness.
I pray for a humble heart.
Thank you for all Your “no’s” this year. I gained more knowledge in Your withholding.
I’m in awe of you. Truly God, I am in awe of You. To say that I am excited for 2018 is an understatement.
I will have more of You yet again, and whatever Your will is for me in 2018, I will say YES.
“You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in Your Word.
Make Your face shine upon Your servant,
And teach me Your statutes.
Great peace have those who love Your law,
and nothing causes them to stumble.” Psalm 119:114, 135, 165
Nothing will cause me to stumble for I have trusted in You. My heart still beats for You and still finds Home in You alone.