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What are you doing with your life that will last forever?

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Posted by: JohnF

I wanted to post this for young and old alike. It's never too late to start. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did.

In Christ. John

Dear Family,

Some where I heard a question that so captured my attention, that I wrote it down and saved it on a three by five card, and this morning I thought I would ask you that same question. The question is this: "What are you doing with your life that will last forever." How will you be remembered 20, 40, or 50 years from now? What kind of imprint will you leave on the lives of the children you have taught, the people you've met, the church you have served? What will people say about you on the way home from the funeral?

In 1972, Life Magazine published a story about the amazing adventures of John Goddard. When he was fifteen, John's grandmother said, "If only I had done that when I was young......" Determined not to make that statement at the end of his life, John wrote out 127 goals for his life.

He named ten rivers he wanted to explore and seventeen mountains he wanted to climb. He set goals of becoming an Eagle Scout, a world traveler, and a pilot. Also on his list was ride a horse in the Rose Bowl parade, dive in a submarine, retrace the travels of Marco Polo, read the Bible from cover to cover, and read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.

He also planned to read the entire works of Shakespeare, Plato, Dickens, Socrates, Aristotle, and several other classic authors. He desired to learn to play the flute and violin, marry, have children (he had five), pursue a career in medicine, and serve as a missionary for his church.

Sound impossible? At the age of forty seven, John Goddard had accomplished 103 of his 127 goals!

This little story which I have taken from God's Little Devotional Book for Leaders, is a good reminder to all of us that goals are important in life. I wonder what my life would be like today if 40 years ago, I had done the same thing that John Goddard had done.

Someone once said "no one ever drifted upstream" If you don't have goals in your life, you will be swept along with the flow of life, and that flow may not always be in the direction you would like to be taken.

Let me get back to my original question "What are you doing with your life that will last forever?" When you come to the end of your life, how do you want to be remembered? What kind of footprints do you want to leave others to follow. Your answer to this question will be largely determined by the kind of goals you have set for your life. When we come to the end of our life, I think most of us want to be remembered as having made a difference in other people's lives. We don't want our life to be like the thumb that is dipped in a bucket of water and pulled out again, leaving no trace of a thumb print behind.

Let me close with a quote from one of my favorite biblical writers, Erwin Lutzer who writes about one who had a goal and purpose in life, and who determinedly followed that goal, and who because He did, accomplished the kind of things that are still remembered today.

"Jesus knew where he had come from, why he was here, and what he was supposed to accomplish/ish. He came down from heaven, not to do his own will, but the will of the Father. That determination controlled every decision He made.

As a result, he was not distracted with the trivial. He was never in a hurry, for he knew his Father would not give a task without the time to do it. Christ was not driven by crises, feeling he must heal everyone in Israel. He could say, 'It is finished,' even when many people were still bound by demons and twisted by disease. What mattered ultimately was not the number of people healed or fed, but whether the Father's will was being done. His clearly defined goals simplified his decisions."

And clearly defined goals will help simplify our decisions and help us leave a legacy worth remembering. Want a goal? Why not try this one. It was the Apostle Paul's goal, and he even wrote it down for us so we would have it to hang on to. In Philippians 3:12-14 he writes "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Now that's a goal worth writing down and living for, and yes, even dying for.

Have a great day, and a wonderful weekend, and be careful to remember that "most people would rather look backward than forward because it's easier to remember where you've been than to figure out where you're going." Quips and Quotes by E.C. McKenzie, p. 207

Yours in ministry,

Pastor Tom



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Posted by: talena

What an inspiring story...

I made a list when I was 18 yrs old of 100 things I wanted to do before I die, and so far I have accomplished 12. That is kind of depressing .

But, I have learned something recently. There will ALWAYS be some of us left. It is inevitable, kind of like DNA...when we love and care for others, we leave behind some of ourselves. When they love and care, they are passing on a little too...and so on.


Posted by: JohnF

You know what Talena...what greater gift could we ever leave behind than knowing we loved God with all our hearts and we loved our neighbor as thyself. To me that is enough of a legacy, and all they need to put on my tombstone is "he cared"

In Christ. John