legacies

This morning's Leadership Community featured the commissioning of our team launching a new church in Kansas City (check out their blog--link to the left). There is something that stirs inside me every time we do this--when we start a new church or new campus, we bring up the team and pray over them, and then acknowledge the fact that they are doing something lasting for the Kingdom of God. I know that we all do lasting things for the Kingdom, myself included, but sometimes I want to be part of something bigger than my everyday life....

I want to leave a legacy. (Cue over-played, slightly-cheesy Nichole Nordeman song here....it should be playing in your head right about...now.)

Some people do this without even trying. At the end of LC, Perry Martin (also on the blog list to the left) got up to do reminders, but before that he shared how much Troy (leader of KC team) had impacted his life--he called it leaving a thumbprint. And then he asked everyone who felt that Troy had left a thumbprint on their lives to raise their hands...and it must have been at least about 75% of the room. It was something of an overwhelming moment....I can't imagine how that felt for Troy. The enormity of one person leaving a "thumbprint" on that many lives staggers me.

On a related note, I am currently back home in Springfield because my family is celebrating my grandpa's 80th birthday tomorrow. My grandpa is another person whose legacy will live on....I think half the city of Springfield is indebted to him in some form or another. My grandparents moved to Springfield in the 50s when my grandpa opened his medical practice. He eventually became the medical director of one of our local hospitals, and now is "retired", which means that instead of being medical director, he works at the hospice. (I think a real retirement would be hazardous to his health.) I am always proud of my grandpa. I am proud that he is MY grandpa. That he is well-known in his community as someone who puts others first, who has had a lifetime of selflessness, who lives humbly and loves his family unconditionally. I can't begin to express everything that my grandparents mean to me. I don't know who I would be without their influence.

When I look at all the people who have influenced (and continue to influence) my life, only a few have remained throughout the years as a constant source of inspiration. The biggest one is my grandpa. He has every right to live in a half-million dollar home, enjoying his retirement and squandering his money after the work he has done for the last fifty+ years....but instead he gives of himself all the time. And it shows in the way other people respect him. He has shown me how to live a blessed life, and I hope that when I am 80 years old I am halfway to the point he is now.

We leave legacies long before we die. The legacy lives in earnest with each day. I see people all around me seizing their dreams, their visions, and leaving in their wake a trail of inspiration. I count myself lucky to work with people whose vision is contagious, whose legacies follow behind them like their shadows--visible and present-- in a church that is never stagnant.