What will we be known for?
BJ Jenkin August 26, 2021
What will we be known for?
Will Covid be remembered in history? Will this horrible disaster in Afghanistan go down in infamy? Will politicians removed from office today be remembered in the future golden years, or will we join the choir of men and women who have insisted over the years
that in their youth politicians were the upstanding epitome of decency? What legacy will this decade leave? What legacy will President Biden leave? What legacy will you and I leave?
We just ended our summer study on King David last night. This extremely important question of legacy must be asked. When we think of David …
Do we think of him as the smalltown child prodigy who was anointed king in his youth? Do we remember that he killed tens of thousands in battle, the celebrated mighty warrior of the Lord and giant slayer? Do we remember him as the writer of so many psalms teaching a profound relationship with his Lord God? Do we remember that his respect for God caused him to cherish the people of God and respect the very unrespectable anointed by God king of Israel, Saul?
Do we think of him as the overbearing ruler who took vain censuses of his army in direct defiance of God … twice? Do we think of David as a murderer, adulterer and lawbreaker? Do we remember him for pride, lust, nepotism or weakness?
It was not the balance of good to bad in David’s life that made him memorable, it was the legacy that he left behind. David’s legacy was stated so well in Acts 13:22, “After removing Saul, (God) made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ Obviously, we know David was not perfect, so what does this mean? Our legacy is secured by the way we end. David ended well.
It’s not for us to mourn our past. Sure, past sins often have far-reaching consequences, but David has shown us that God’s forgiveness gives us permission to continue, to live in the Lord for the rest of our days. I once heard someone say that, on a tombstone, the dates are not as important as the dash in between. That dash is the individual’s legacy, what they have left behind of their lives.
“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:14)
Our legacy is what matters. How we end, what we do from here, that is what matters.
Let’s let our legacy be like David’s! When the terrors of Covid, Afghanistan, political corruption, price inflation, and so much more washes away or gets replaced by new terrors, what will be left to say about our lives? Like David, we are not perfect. We sin. We are corrupted and corruptible. However, like David has taught us, a man after God’s own heart is not immune from stumbling, but he confesses his sin, repents from that way of life and continues to walk in the Lord. Let it be said by the Lord that you and I are men and women after His heart for we have done everything our Lord
wanted us to do! Let that be our legacy!
In His Grip,
BJ