2 Kings 20:16-19  
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to this message from the Lord: The time is coming when everything in your palace—all the treasures stored up by your ancestors until now—will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. Some of your very own sons will be taken away into exile. They will become eunuchs who will serve in the palace of Babylon’s king.” 

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “This message you have given me from the Lord is good.” For the king was thinking, “At least there will be peace and security during my lifetime.” (NLT)

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A hundred years from now, who will remember you lived? Who will remember anything you accomplished? For perspective, who of your relatives were alive one-hundred years ago? 

Unless you are devoted to genealogy, you probably don’t know many details about your ancestors more than two generations into the past. Yet their decisions and lifestyles shape our world to some degree. 

What will be your legacy? How will the decisions you make in your lifetime affect those in the generations to come?

A well-known executive coach and mentor is in his eighties today. He has a plan for his books and ideas to continue influencing people for a hundred years beyond his own expiration date. This is a noble legacy. 

Hezekiah, for all the good he did, and for his tender heart toward God, was a failure at future planning and at shaping the next generation of leaders. The next chapter in 2 Kings makes you wonder what was he doing in the extended life God granted him. (See 2 Kings 20:6.) He most certainly was not setting up the nation for success.

Legacy has less to do with people remembering us fondly and with gratitude, and much more to do with us building a better world for those who come behind us. 

The best way to leave a good legacy is to live an intentionally good life. Fruitful and effective living from God’s perspective is shaped by his truth and wisdom, his will and ways. Honoring God and serving others creates a wideness of mercy and grace, peace and productivity, that makes possible the better world we want our descendants to inhabit and thrive in. 

What will you do today that makes the world to come less like the violence of Good Friday and more like the celebration of Easter Sunday? How will this idea shape how you plan and navigate your day and days to come?

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I will live this day with the intention of honoring God and serving others so that those who come behind me experience more peace and purpose than otherwise possible. 

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Our Father, empower me to live today as if I am doing it on purpose. Deliver me from the temptation to drift. Save me from laziness. Make even my recreation beneficial to myself and others. Amen.