I’ll never forget this historic moment in my families life…it was circa 1983, and for Christmas, my mother received as a gift…drum roll please…a MICROWAVE! Folks, to say that this was a game changer would be an understatement! Our whole world changed! It freed up time; Mom no longer had to spend hours slaving away in the kitchen (no comment Dad!), we could eat those delicious TV dinners, and then to top it all off, someone even invented the Microshake! Pure bliss.
When it comes to meals, popcorn, reheating leftovers, microwaves are perfect. But for your legend, and your legacy, not so much.
Today, another hero of the faith passed from this life. He wasn’t necessarily a man that I knew, but rather a man that I knew of. The stories of his life and legend, while sometimes outrageous, were nevertheless true. Yet, his legend wasn’t created over the last few days of his life. His legend wasn’t even forged over the last decade, or 25 years. His legend began being created the day that he took his first breath.
To think that you can microwave your legend and legacy is a myth. It is like a seemingly infinite puzzle. One piece at a time. One day at a time. One choice, and one decision at a time.
There are no short cuts to the crafting of your legacy. Only by the constant ebb and flow of the waves of time crashing into your life, can a memorable legacy be created.
It’s often the small things. The mundane. The sometimes overlooked, simple things of life, that contribute to the sculptor of legacy chiseling away, at what initially appears to be, a pointless chunk of stone. Nevertheless, piece by piece, here a little, there a little, something beautiful, something lasting begins to appear. I don’t think the legends we admire so much lived each day to become a legend, but rather they lived each and every day with purpose, with urgency, with a laser like focus on the small things of life, knowing that their time was short, and that every moment of every day mattered.
I’ve heard John Maxwell say “Yesterday is a cancelled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have, so spend it wisely”.
My friends, don’t put it off any longer, begin working right now on the legacy that you want to leave.