Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 212 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
How to Live a Legacy Each Day #1
Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 212 of our Trek, and for the past three days, we explored how to live life fully by living with a purpose and on purpose. Today we will explore another trail that will help us learn how to live a legacy life each day. Listening daily to Wisdom-Trek is one thing that will help you gain the wisdom needed to live your legacy today that will also allow you to leave a legacy tomorrow. If you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. This final week of 2015 is a busy one for us wrapping up some work with a couple of clients and continuing with our 2016 life planning. It has been cool and very rainy all week in Ohio, but we have had no snow. Paula and I have dreams of being snowed in, but unless the Internet and electricity are off, most of our work can continue as usual.
Our renovation contractors are making good progress in the library, parlor, and downstairs foyer/hallway. The drywall is completed on the ceilings, and the walls are getting smoothed out in preparation for painting. Unavoidably there is drywall and plaster dust everywhere, but we will wait for any major clean up until they are finished. It is amazing how it seeps into rooms that are closed off, but it will be well worth it when it is completed.
Today and for the next couple of days, our trek does take us on a slightly different trail, as we consider what it means to live a legacy each day and not just wait to leave a legacy when we die. This is an important concept to grasp. Our positive impact on others should begin as early as possible on our life’s trek and grow each day and then last throughout eternity in the lives of others.
So let’s explore.
How to Live a Legacy Each Day #1
As we start today’s Trek, I want to ask, “What kind of impact or legacy do you have on others? If someone were to describe your attributes in one or two sentences, what would they say? What do others think about you and the life that you live?”
Living a legacy each day is part of living with purpose and on purpose, which we explored over the past three days. It is part of living a rich and satisfying life. I am not referring to money but a rich life that money can’t buy.
In reality your life leaves a legacy each day – that is not an option. The question is “What type of legacy are you living?” However you frame that question, the truth is that every day you are leaving a legacy that will impact the lives of your family, friends, and others, which will last well beyond your time on earth.
What are you passing onto them daily? They are impacted by your life or legacy whether that is good or bad. The legacy you live impacts the legacy they live, and that will impact circles of influence and generations well beyond yourself. As a grandfather of 6 grandchildren so far, I am reminded of the verse in Proverbs 13:22, “Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren, but the sinner’s wealth passes to the godly.”
This inheritance is not just referring to money but the wealth of a life well lived – a life of positive influence.
I read a comment not too long ago that we should all reflect on, “The central paradox of our time is that most of us are earning more money and living better in material terms than our parents did at the same age…Yet by most measures we’re working longer and more frantically than ever before, and the time and energy left for our non-working lives are evaporating. The new economy we are living in brings enormous benefits in terms of wealth…innovation…new chances and choices. But our absorption in keeping up with it all is leading to the erosion of our families, the fragmenting of our communities, and the challenge of keeping our own integrity intact. We are in danger of losing the crucial distinction between ‘making a living and making a life.’”
A former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm said something very interesting, “Future historians will say the multiple factors that led to the decline of cultures in the world were led by the failure to replace ourselves with enough stable children born to families with the ability to raise successful children themselves.”
What we are experiencing is a crisis in generational legacies. Regardless of your age, it is never too late to start living your positive legacy today. Even with the decline in some of our values in the world, I do see hope among young adults today that they appear to be more plugged into social commerce. That is not only making a living but also making a difference in their world. Let’s hope that trend continues.
Martin Luther, when asked what he would do if he knew he was going to die tomorrow, replied simply, “I’d go out and plant a tree.” He would, in other words, take action today that would grow on and on into the future. That is what living a legacy does. It will grow on and on into the future.
On today’s Trek, let us learn the principles that are not centered on what we can become in life but what positive impact we can live as we are daily creating a legacy. It is not about us but about our impact.
Let’s consider the difference between your reputation and your legacy.
- You reputation is who you are supposed to be; your legacy is who you are.
- Your reputation is what you have when you come to a new community; your legacy is what you leave behind when you go.
- A reputation is made in a moment; a legacy is built over a lifetime.
- A single newspaper report or careless gossip can make or destroy your reputation, but a life of consistent impact gives you your legacy.
- Reputation is what men say about you on your tombstone; legacy is what your children and grandchildren will live with for the rest of their lives.
Are you living your legacy each day or striving to build a reputation?
The Apostle Paul desired to live his legacy each day as he instructed his protégé Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:6-7, “As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.”
Notice that Paul’s brief statements here say nothing about the education he had received, the places he had traveled, the letters he had written, the people he had preached to, or the churches he had planted. He flat out wanted his legacy to be “I have remained faithful.” I love that! It’s what I want to desire to be as a Christ follower – faithful, consistent, dependable, and considered a good man.
As Paul pondered the end of his life, he made three very simple statements about his legacy. He says that he had . . .
- “Fought the good fight”
- “Finished the race”
- “Remained faithful”
I would suggest to you that right there you have some of the greatest statements concerning “a living legacy” you will ever read. If you want to live and leave a legacy that is greater than you, if you want to live and leave a legacy that will impact generation after generation, if you want to live a legacy and then leave a legacy that is great, all you need is wrapped up in these three profoundly simple yet inspiringly deep statements.
On our Trek over the next few days, we will explore each of those statements from Paul as we learn how to live and leave a legacy of our own. These are very important lessons in wisdom, so encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.
That will finish our podcast for today. Remember to listen to your daily dose of wisdom each day. Please share Wisdom-Trek with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person so they can come along with us each day.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.
As we take this Trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!