What Will Your Legacy Be?

“‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’” Acts 17:28 (NIV) 

  

  Recently a dear neighbor died. She was amazing. At just a few years shy of one hundred years old, she was always outside, raking her leaves in the fall, shoveling snow in the winter, mowing her grass in the summer. Always active. Always busy. She had family and friends that would have done those things for her, but she enjoyed activity. She was unstoppable. 

  After I heard that she had died I thought to myself that they should write the following on her tombstone: 

  

“The Only Thing That Could Stop Her Was Death” 

  

  I admired her tenacity and zest for life. I envied it. Up until she died I would have truly said she was in better shape than I. To live your life fully until death stops you in your tracks, that is the way to go. 

  Sadly, too many of us crawl rather than run through life. We would run if we could, but life has slowed us down through disability, disease, and various afflictions. We envy those who can go with stopping, run without slowing down. For it is hard to be a spectator in life. 

  Yet I believe we can find ways to run our race, to forge ahead when affliction would stop us in our tracks. We may not be running. But with cane, wheelchair, even hospital bed–we can forge ahead, keep moving, run our race in the best way we can. Affliction may stop us, but we can choose to move forward in whatever way is available to us, for we do not move alone. 

  Those of us who have fellowship with God understand that He is with us in our affliction. We have a Partner in the race. When life itself has thrown roadblocks in our path, we can call upon God to aid us in the fight, to give us strength to lift our head when we are too weak to move otherwise. And within we are standing up, fighting, rising to the challenge by having our spirit fortified with His Spirit. 

  Be encouraged by those who can run well, those who keep moving when life should have stopped them in their tracks. And when you are weak and can barely walk, lift up your head, rise up in your spirit, and call upon the Father to give you strength to move forward. Continue your race. Perhaps when your life is over they will write on your tombstone: 

  

 “The Only Thing That Could Stop Them Was Death”. 

  

  Prayer: Dear Lord, life throws many things in our path to stop us, help us to continue running the race, and to finish well. Amen. 

Karlton Douglas 

Copyright 2017