Our lives come and our lives go, like the wind!

For many of us, we plan our lives as kids on becoming sports stars, musicians, actors, lawyers, doctors and the like.  We aspire towards greatness.  We all bask in the obsessions to get a $100 million contract like Lebron or Dwayne Wade did this past week in Miami or we hope to make $65 million in a year someday like Jay  Z did last year.

Our society encourages us as kids to become the popular and most liked.  We are taught that money is the key to success and happiness.  But how many will remember my favorite basketball player, Dwayne Wade 100 years from now in the year 2110?

Truth be told, we all encounter experiences that take each of us down different paths, and into various professions and unique life circumstances.  Rarely does the world paint a fun picture of being a model garbage man or electrician or painter or pastor or real estate agent or sales man or chef or receptionist.  But there are more of us that fall into these roles than the above ‘pie in the sky’ professions.  And funny enough, many of those who are often remembered centuries later, are from the latter.

Does it mean that our society is failing our sons and daughters by allowing them to think they’ve got to be one of the ‘popular’ Wade’s or ‘Brons to be remembered and to be a great success of all time?  Would it be fair to say money and fame don’t guarantee lasting memories as society would have you believe?

Despite our life’s experiences, our failures and successes, we all have something positive to share.  More and more, we see people dying around us with all the money and fame in the world, but totally unhappy and without much to be remembered long term.  A near distant memory of my point here is Michael Jackson.  All the fame in the world.  A pop icon of our generation.  But how will his life be remembered?  Who will talk about him in 1,000 years?  What, if anything, will be remembered and passed on?

I believe it’s important that we begin to paint a new picture.  I believe that we should begin to share a vision with our generation, both present and future, that explains that life can be a success without the monetary success and material elements which we can’t take along when we pass.

Here are my 3 Ways To Live A Life To Be Remembered:

Leave a Legacy for your children, family and community to emulate.

Despite your profession or monetary gains, if you live and leave a legacy to be remembered by your children, family and community, they will likely take that on with them, into their lives and pass that on to their children, families and communities.  The simple legacy you leave to a few, could be responsible for many hundreds or thousands in the generations to follow.   A positive legacy doesn’t have to be monetary.  It can be so much more than money could ever buy!

My grandmother left a legacy of spiritual strength, passed on to my dad, and from my dad to my sister and I.  I only hope my life’s legacy will leave some of the great principles imparted to me, on to my daughter and so on.  The gifts of being honest, noble and self-sacrificing, are some of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from my dad, and will be some of the lessons that can keep my generations to come, in line with the right way of living out their own lives in the years to come.

You serve magnanimously, giving much more to your world than you take away.

We all have heard that “It is more blessed to give than to receive” ( NIV – Acts 20:35).  That is so true, but how many of us want this car and that house, but are not willing to sacrifice our time or resources to give back to the world in return!

There are men and women in the bible that gave heartily and entirely for the benefit of generations who followed them.  For an example of this, we can look into the life of Abraham in the bible.  Here’s a man who believed in God’s promises which shaped his life and more so, the lives of his offsprings for thousands of years after he was gone from the earth!  Abraham (meaning “Father of Multitudes”) broke the legacy of his ancestors who were idolators, and instead left a legacy remembered for generations to come, by his service to God.  He served his God righteously, even willing to sacrifice his son, for his faith and belief.

If you happen to live to be remembered, it becomes timeless and unforgettable.

The best example of someone whose life is timeless to me is Jesus.  No friend or family member of mine can tell me about their own great great great grandfather (only 5 generations ago) in a personal way and describe the life they lived and what people remembered about their actions and experiences.  Very few people can describe even 3 or 4 generations before.  We often wonder about and research the history of our ancestors, but it must not have been that great a life, that 100 or 200 years later, no one in our lineage remembers a speck of what their life was all about.  And in most cases, we are only able to find minor details of a person’s full life.

Even with us being unable to source someone in our lineage 100 years ago,  billions of people all across the globe today are able to talk about the life of Jesus, the perfect life he lived, the miracles he performed, the knowledge and wisdom he shared with his disciples and community. The selfless sacrifice he made dying on the cross is remembered to this day by people like you and I.

Just think about that for a minute.  The bible paints a picture full of color, full of life!  Over 2,000 years has passed and we still can read about, talk about, and live out Jesus’ principles and example today.

Now, if Jesus didn’t live such a profound life worth remembering, would He be that big an influence on billions of believers today?  Would there have been enough about his life’s story that was recorded?  What did He do for others, that allowed so many to remember so much in detail, that different authors were able to write the Gospels and so many other books and letters about him, that all tell about our Lord and Savior so clearly…

Would He have been remembered so many centuries into the future, that we could read about Him and know how awesome he was, had he not lived a life to remember?

The above being said, it leaves me to believe that my life can best be remembered by attempting to emulate the timeless perfection of those that live on and endure on forever.  It leaves me to believe that I must not allow my life to wither away, forgotten in 3 generations from now.

Wouldn't it be great if we were all to become men and women that are remembered for our goodness and righteousness?  Isn't it even more important that we're  focused on leaving positive legacies, serving with a selfless sacrifice, and attempting to emulate the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?  If more of us do more of that, we’ll see more of our future generation, yearning to be more like Jesus than Jay Z, more like Abraham than like Lebron, and more like Joseph than like … ((you name it)).

Let us all live on, and live lives to be remembered!

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash