A legacy

Today in church, we had a guest speaker, Gene Appel. He is currently the lead pastor of Willowcreek in Illinois. Oh man, his sermon was AWESOME! It actually brought some tears to my eyes, as well as many other people's eyes. He gave a sermon on leaving a legacy. A few moments into his sermon, he asked this question, "If this was your last year to be alive, how would you want people to remember you?" Wow, that is a profound question. He named people and asked what they were known for like Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, etc. He brought up the point that a person should be remembered by three key points: faith, hope, and love. But most of all a person should be remembered by the love they gave, the love they showed. When you think about it, that is really all we need to be known by. He stated that when you died, and people don't remember you by the way you loved, then you didn't live and you have NOTHING.

He showed a video about a woman who had married her high school sweetheart. They had four boys, with another baby on the way. You can definitely tell by watching the story that the husband really loved his wife and kids. He was a true family man. One night, the husband got a prompting from the Holy Spirit in the middle of the night, to get up and make a video for his family. The video started out with him saying, "If you find this DVD, it means something bad has happened." He proceeded to talk about how he didn't want to die young, but it must of been God's timing. He talked about his family and how much he loved them. He talked about his faith in God and pleaded with his professional coworkers to take a chance on Christ and told them it was completely worth everything to know God. The video was heartbreaking as there were moments where he cried, moments where he laughed. A short time later, he was killed in a commuter plane crash. The wife had a vague memory of the DVD as her husband had crawled back into bed that night and briefly mentioned it to her. She had forgot about it, but found it sitting on top of his will. That man will be remembered by his love that he gave.

So, I know this might be a little morbid to think about, but how do you want to be remembered? I really pondered on that today. I think I would want to be remembered first and foremost by my love for God. I really try to show God in all aspects of my life. But how else? I sometimes get caught up in myself, but I always try to remember that other people's needs should always come before mine. I would like to hope that people would remember me by that. There's so much more to add, but I leave you to ponder on this quotation:

"Our days are numbered. One of the primary goals in our lives should be to prepare for our last day. The legacy we leave is not just in our possessions, but in the quality of our lives. What preparations should we be making now? The greatest waste in all of our earth, which cannot be recycled or reclaimed, is our waste of the time that God has given us each day." ~Billy Graham

Have a great day!

Bran :)