What Are We Leaving BEHIND?

        Recently I was visiting Canada for a funeral. Somehow when a life ends, it causes you to reevaluate the purpose and priorities of your own life.

        A couple of weeks ago, with some of my relatives, we visited the tombstone of my father and my mother. And while walking around, looking at so many tombstones in the cemetery, I got to think that all that it says on those tombstones about that person’s life, and their accomplishment, the impact of their presence in this world, the joys, the tears, the turmoils and the victories, are spelled out in nothing but a hyphen between two dates. A life is but a vapor… It is “as a flower which is here for a while and then is gone”.

        But what we leave behind is imprinted in the hearts of those we’ve touched. My sister’s life was full of energy, her smile could light up the room, her voice was poignant and her laugh was contagious. There were so many things about her that we miss and we’d love to make ours.

        Unless we revisit our purpose, and our destiny, we can live a pretty aimless life. This is most important in each of our lives. –to readjust our compass so that what we sow is actually the kind of seed we want to harvest.

        And each one of us can actually determine the outcome of our harvest by changing what we sow through our thoughts and our words. –sooo heavy! It’s a law of God.

        When we pass on, we leave behind what we have, but we take with us who we are. It’s our character that lives on in the heart of those we leave behind. It’s who we were in character that will remain. That is a sobering thought right there….

        Linda and I were there the whole last week of my sister’s life, right by her side. And we got to love her, and thank her, sing to her, pray with her and cry with her and it left us very pensive. Not only about her life but about ours.

        What are we leaving as footsteps in the hearts of those we love? And the world, for that matter?

        I got to meet an actual saint one day–Mother Theresa of Calcutta. And her life changed mine. Not because of her great accomplishments but because of her effaced personality and her conviction of heart. Those were the root-causes of her accomplishments. She had an inner strength that made you look up and take notice.

        That’s what made her leave SUCH a thumbprint in whatever she did, wherever she went. It was embedded in her innermost first.

        We all have a purpose and a destiny. ALL of us do. But most don’t take the time to look in and find it, and even less want to pattern our daily life after that end goal.

        Our destiny and purpose (for each one of us) is always embedded in a life of LOVE…

        We were created in love by a God of love, to live a life of love, in love, to teach about love, those we love so they can know love and be loving. It’s really all about love… I’m convinced that LOVE is what will leave the most relevant memory for the path of our life.

So stay loving, always, in all ways.