Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV
A few years back a song hit the contemporary Christian music charts with a bullet. It went straight up quickly, clearly capturing the feelings of many people. It said, “I don’t want to leave a legacy, I don’t care if they remember me – only Jesus.” I get it. I get the appeal of the song and the thought behind it. I know the writer was trying to communicate humility and his true priority, Jesus. I get the fans of the song too, because if we are truly Jesus followers, we want Him to be the focus, not us.
The problem is, that’s not the way life works. All of us leave a legacy whether we want to or not, whether it’s intentional or not. The way God designed life is that our lives are influenced and impacted by others. Paul got it 100%. He was intentional. He followed Christ with all of his energy and skills, and then he confidently told his friends and the people he was responsible to lead, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.”
That’s a far cry from the “do what I say, not what I do” attitude we sometimes carelessly adopt. We want our lectures and our words to somehow help people go in the right direction, but we don’t give enough attention to our everyday choices and actions. However, our legacy is the accumulation of our daily decisions over time. If you are a Jesus follower and you want Jesus to be the main thing people take away from you, you focus on living and loving like Him. You focus on the way you treat people who serve you, neighbors who can be annoying sometimes, people who are different than you, how you actually represent Jesus in this world.
Again, each of us is leaving a legacy. If we don’t want to or don’t care about it, that becomes a legacy of its own. Every day we add something to the picture and story of our lives, and eventually they become what we leave behind. Our decisions, contributions, priorities, reputations, and character will remain. It will be what others remember when your name is mentioned. Bigger than that, the legacy of likeness to Jesus will be absorbed into the lives of people who follow you as you follow Christ. You will never know until heaven the dividends God has reaped from the choices you made and the legacy you created.
- You are leaving a legacy, adding to it right now. Can you write a sentence, summarizing what you want your legacy to be? Think it through and then let it be the guiding principle for your life.