Living Your Legacy
Many of us are familiar with the concept of leaving a legacy. However, how many of us are familiar with living our legacy? Legacy is not just what's left over when you die. It is not the stuff. Legacy is now. Legacy is what we leave inside of those we care about.
About five or six years ago I read a book called the Dream Manager. The premise is simple - the books talks about how a company wanted to improve company culture, and in doing so realized that living one’s dreams and desires are vital to a fulfilled life. I was inspired after reading it and wanted to incorporate its principles into my own life. I even bought it for my good friend Phil, who is a pastor of a small church and a father to four young sons. A year after I gave the book to Phil, we were catching up and he began to thank me for buying him this book. I had completely forgotten about giving it to him. He started to share how he was inspired and started teaching his children the importance of realizing their dreams. He built a dream board with them and has been helping them create a safe place to live out their desires. He even bought the book for a friend who owns a business and is now implementing these ideals as well. The business owner bought it for his son! I felt so honored knowing that I was able to contribute in a way that impacted him, his family, and his community. Phil's kids are now growing up in an environment where their dreams have real value and are relentlessly being pursued. All of this because I bought my friend a book.
Legacy is what we invest in the people around us, and the difference we make in our communities. Legacy is more than money, although it includes that. It’s time for us to take back the definition of this powerful word! Some, when they hear the word legacy, think of million-dollar inheritances and mansions. True legacy is something else entirely. It is the difference you’ve made mentoring youth in Big Brothers Big Sisters, the vacations you’ve taken with your kids. Legacy are the Sunday afternoons spent playing football in the yard. The thread that binds all of these experiences together is time. To live your legacy, you actually get to be intentional about experiences! It is not a concept for the dead. However, you must be intentional about the affect you’re having on the world around you in order to live the legacy you want.
“Wise men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit under.”
We are not interested in just leaving a legacy - we want to live a legacy! Seeing the impact our time here on earth has while we are still here. Being intentional about investing our time, passion, energy, gifts, and money to better the world for a generation we’ll never see. This Greek proverb sums it up best: "Wise men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never see."
I have not heard legacy expressed very often in terms of the present. Growing up, the only times I can recall hearing about legacy was at a funeral in remembrance of someone. They talked about things they left behind. I don’t hear people speaking about legacy in regards to the living or in the present tense. Let’s change that! We believe that “a legacy is what we leave inside of those we love and an inheritance is what gives them capacity to do something about it.”
I would add a legacy is what we are leaving in those we love, today, right now. I for one, am a product of the legacy of my close friends, living family members and active mentors in my life. I am living their legacy right along side of them. As it turns out, I am also making deposits into their lives which in turn is my living legacy!
Legacy is determined by the choices we make, the people we impact, and the difference that we make, right now. When it comes to finances, there are a myriad of ways to live a legacy. We are passionate about living our legacy, and want to see you do the same. You are in control of your own legacy; what do you want it to be?
