A Friend's Legacy Challenge

A friend gave a devotional recently, saying he was greatly touched by his friend's death. What did he love? He loved to Bar-B-Que. He will be remembered for cooking great BBQ. There was a sadness to the remembrance, because the legacy his friend left was the joy of cooking meat.

An obituary not so long ago "remembered" a man who died a little young (to me at least, 'cause he was younger than I am) whose "legacy" was a life-time of spending money on himself and parties with his friends. Good or bad, that's what his was.

What's MY legacy? Is it all in books and notebooks, in CD's and other valuables (not much of that), or is it a legacy that is a LEGACY?

The best moment in my life for this kind of question came early on. My son, an honor graduate at SMU, thanked me for the inspiration. "What?" I responded. "For me watching you do homework while you worked on a doctorate while I was in Junior High!"

Aware or unaware, we leave legacies. We pray that they are good, because, good or ill, we do leave them and they do have impact. And we never outgrow our need to reflect on the fundamentals: "What's my legacy?"