What We Leave Behind

An administrator said to me, “When you’re gone, the only thing you leave behind is what you’ve written.” My reply: “With all due respect sir, I disagree with you 100%. I’ve got books in the Library whose pages are turning yellow, and whose check-out record is empty. On the other hand, I’ve got former students all around the globe, in whose lives, at least some of my influence lives on.” Well, I’m gone, at least from that place of ministry. The pages of the books are getting more yellow with each day. Hundreds, yea thousands, of my former students, the pride of my life, are making significant impact for the Kingdom of God all around the globe, some in places I cannot even pronounce, much less spell. Am I alone in that feeling? No. As early as 495 – 429 BC, Pericles, a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city’s Golden Age, said, “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” Even before Pericles, the Old Testament tells of Jonathan’s influence in the life of David that ultimately spared the life of the future King (1 Samuel 19:1-6). A few years after Pericles, the Apostle Paul instructed young Timothy concerning investments in people, “The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). I know that what I write is important, a God-given ability, and that many people are blessed by my books and my Internet writings, but it is the investment of time and perhaps wisdom, in the lives of others that keeps me going. It’s what I will someday, leave behind. How about you? What are you planning on leaving behind?

Join me this week as we pray for the following global concerns:
• Vancouver (Canada) Vision Tour, Sept. 10-12 and Vancouver Island Prayer Journey, Sept. 13.
• September 11 is the National Day of Catalonia, Spain. Join others in interceding for spiritual awakening for Catalonians, as well as for Spaniards and immigrants living in the land.
• Pray for Doyle, Karen and family as they adjust back to Texas from Poland for a few months.
• Pray for Robert and Donna as they prepare to return to Taiwan in a few weeks.