Legacy living

Do you realize that the only impact you will make on time and eternity is in the lives of the people you encounter?  It's most unlikely that we will be remembered beyond our children's memories.  If we are lucky we will get to impact the lives of our grandchildren, but beyond that you and I will most likely be forgotten by the world.

Actually, that's ok because the impact you make on those you encounter can and does have an eternal result.  It's the results that come from a kind word to a cashier, a smile to a child, a listening ear to a hurting friend, a small courtesy to a stranger, a cup of coffee for someone in need.  

Legacy living is not living  for the future, but living in the now fully engaged in the lives of those around you.  It's that legacy that you are here for.  It's those lives that you are here to love, care for and impact for Christ.  Legacy living is a present tense, fully awake, totally engaged life of touching the lives of everyone you meet in a way that their lives are better, encouraged, blessed and changed.  

It's a life lived in the present tense for an eternal goal- that everyone you meet and talk to and engage might know Christ and experience forgiveness and eternal life.  

Often we live for a legacy in the future, but that's an illusion.  Few, if any, will remember you in the future.  They will be living their lives and what you did will have little impact on them and rarely be remembered. But living in the now, fully awake to the people around you, loving them, caring for them, praying for them, listening, giving a smile, an encouraging word, a hope for the day, all of that...even as small as a cup of cold water will not be forgotten, it will impact a life, it will change an eternity.  

Don't live for "some day", for "significance in the future", simply live right now fully awake to the people around you and engaged in touching their lives in a positive way.  That legacy is the one that will last.  Look around  you, turn off your phone, notice those God has brought into your presence and pray for what God would have you do for them.  It's that kind of living that makes an eternal impact.