Leaving Your Legacy

Generally when people think about leaving a legacy what immediately comes to mind is leaving a financial inheritance. An age-old adage is "legacy equals property." People wrongly assume that the most important issue among families is money and wealth transfer, but it's not. Non-financial items that people leave behind -- such as values, morals, ethics, and their faith story -- are more important today than the financial aspects of inheritance. With the high cost of healthcare, perhaps few people have much money to leave behind anyway.

The apostle Paul was writing to Timothy near the end of his life. He talked about his death and his departure from this world. He was sharing his legacy with Timothy: "I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. "Being faithful, even in old age, is a way of leaving a legacy for future generations. Our personal legacy may be best defined by the values we hold in life, not by the value of our possessions or financial wealth. A question we ask as we grow older is this: "How do I want to be remembered?"

In the movieAbout Schmidt, Jack Nicholson portrays Warren Schmidt, a man in his 60's who is forced to deal with an ambiguous future as he enters retirement. Soon after retirement, his wife dies, and he must come to terms with his daughter's marriage to a man he does not care for and to the failure that his life has become. While trying to run his daughter's life, he realizes that he has wasted his own life. At this point, he proclaims:

"Relatively soon, I will die. Maybe in 20 years, maybe tomorrow, it doesn't matter. Once I am dead and everyone who knew me dies too, it will be as though I never existed. What difference has my life made to anyone? None that I can think of. None at all."

A similar theme develops in Frank Capra's classic film,It's a Wonderful Life.At the edge of despair, exhausted, discouraged and all but defeated at every turn in his life, Jimmy Stewart's character, George Bailey, wishes he had never been born and decides to take his own life. He plunges from a bridge into an icy river, only to be pulled to safety by Clarence, a bumbling angel. Clarence also grants Stewart an opportunity to see what the world would be like if he had never been born.

What would the world be like if you had not been born? How would the lives of those you love (except for children you never had!) have been different? In what way is your life making a difference? What are your accomplishments?

Unless people feel their lives have some meaning, some worth, and some lasting significance, there isn't much cause not to take the leap off the bridge into the icy river below. Perhaps this is the real reason why Pharaohs built pyramids, kings erected monuments, and presidents created libraries as a way of saying, "My life meant something."

Probably very few of us have gone to the trouble of writing our own obituary or epitaph. It's not on the top of the chore list for most folks. But right now I invite you to take a few moments and to think about your life. How would you like to be remembered when you are no longer here? Are people better because of knowing you? Did you encourage somebody to grow in Christian faith? What would your epitaph say? Take out a sheet blank sheet of paper. Reflect on your life: your faith in God, your family, your ministry, including the highs and the lows over the years. Now, how you would like to be remembered? Write how you would like to be remembered.

I recognize that this is not an easy task for many people. It is also one you may not complete in one sitting, for your life is continuing to unfold. However, I am hopeful that this exercise helps you to think about how you want to be remembered and may serve to guide you in your living of these days. What is your legacy?

Dr. Richard H. Gentzler, Jr. is the Director of the Center on Aging & Older Adult Ministries at the Discipleship Ministries in Nashville, Tennessee. He is author of numerous books on midlife and older adults including,The Graying of the Church(Discipleship Resources) andDesigning an Older Adult Ministry(Discipleship Resources). Dr. Gentzler also produced the award winning video,New Beginnings: The Gifts of Aging.