After my dad told me of witnessing the aftermath of a fatal car accident, it got me thinking. What if that had been me? What if I were the one lying on the street, covered by a tarp. Not to be macabre, but it’s a reality that I must face (and so must all of you who read this) of human mortality. The question remains: what will my legacy be after I’m gone? What will yours be?

Will it be a legacy of an obsessive need to prove yourself to the world, always striving for acceptance? Will it be a legacy dominated by a career and not much else? Will people look back on your life and see someone who was safe and careful, but didn’t do much of significance? What will people have to say about you at your funeral after you die?

I want my legacy to be one of love. I want it said of me that Jesus loved me and I lived as His beloved and His love overflowed in my heart until it spilled out on every person I touched in my life. I want it said that I loved not just the pretty ones or the popular ones or the influential ones, but all the ones God made. I want people to say that I had a special place in my heart for poor, the sick, the homless, the friendless, the outcast, the widow, the orphan, and those God had a special place for in His heart.

I want to say that I helped to awaken in people a longing for Jesus and enabled them to see themselves as Jesus sees them– as His beloved. I want as many people to know that they are not alone in this world. That there is hope and healing and wholeness and restoration in Jesus. That no one is ever too far gone or too lost or too messed up for Jesus to save. That Jesus will never ever give up on His own or stop loving them.

What will your legacy be? What do you want it to be? May it be a legacy of love that causes people not so much to remember you, but to see Jesus and fall in love with Him. That’s the best kind of legacy to have.

Amen and amen.