Legacy

Every individual, whether Godly or ungodly, famous or obscure, wants to leave behind a legacy. That is, they want to leave something behind or have something known about them that people will remember and love for many years to come. For the actors and actresses of Hollywood, it’s the movies and awards that they want to be known for. Politicians want to be known for passing certain kinds of legislation and accomplishing great things in office such as fixing the economy or ending a war. What do we as Christians want our legacy to be? How should we want to be remembered? As God’s people we should be known as those who live for Him in all of our lives. We should be known as those who were faithful members of the church. One of the songs that we sang in Hope Heralds this year was called “Let it be said of us”. This song talks about the legacy of the Christian. It speaks of how we are to “…let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song” and how we are to be “…known by our love” for each other. Although this song was arranged for a male choir specifically, it speaks of how we all should live as God’s people. There were several unexpected deaths in this last week. These men and women left behind a legacy. “…Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” (Rev. 14:13b). They lived as Christians in the midst of both the church and the world and God blessed the work of their hands. They weren’t perfect, they were sinners like the rest of us, but God worked sorrow over their sins and faith in Him in their hearts. There are those whose works follow them straight into Hell. These people lied, cheated on their spouses, stole vast amounts of money and did many other wicked things and never repented of their sins. By God’s grace, however, those who died recently were not among them. God took them to heaven because they were faithful to Him by His grace alone, not based on anything that they did. May our legacy as young people and young adults be that we follow the Lord with all of our hearts.

Kevin Rau