The Name You Leave Behind

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In 100 years its possible your children, grandchildren or great grandchildren will mention you every once in a while. But what about in 200 years? How often have you thought about your great great great grandfather or your great great great great grandmother? They may have been amazing people but unless they were the leader of an army or leader of a country, an inventor or innovator of some sort, you probably wouldn’t be able to say much about them. You might even be hard pressed to even know their name.

It’s pretty humbling to think that 100 years from now all the relationships we have, all the
work we do each day, whether you’re a doctor healing sick people or a businessman working
to keep his family fed and the business on its feet, our lives will be but MAYBE a mention
over the dinner table in passing. In 200 years or 500 years from now, unless you make some
major contribution to society like the Chia Pet or frozen yogurt, the amount of conversation
surrounding your name will likely fade into a distant flicker.

This morning a simple yet incredibly real truth hit me as I read Colossians 3:17.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through Him.”

We have a limited amount of time and a limited amount of resources here on this earth. We can
use those resources to make us feel good. We can pour those resources back into ourselves
and into what makes us happy, but this is so shortsighted in light of the brevity of life and what
God has asked us to do.

The other option is asking Jesus to reveal to you on a fundamental level that this world really
doesn’t revolve around us. And I say asking Jesus to reveal it to you because the sort of
fundamental understanding that I’m talking about doesn’t come in our own strength. It truly has
to be a supernatural revelation that only God can reveal to you in faith. Once this truth really
sinks in, then we can be most effective at really making a difference with the life we’ve been
given from God for today.

My prayer for all of us is this: Let’s stop working for security and comfort. Let’s stop working to
get the things that make us feel good. Let’s stop trying to make a name for ourselves and let’s
start reminding ourselves of the gift of life and how this very moment is just that, a gift from God.
It’s a gift He wants us to take full advantage of by focusing not on our accomplishments and
accolades but pointing others to His.

The name of Jesus is the name that lasts for all eternity. His accomplishment was made in the
form of death on a cross for sins He didn’t commit – for your sin, for my sin, and for the sins of
those who will follow in generations to come. Jesus is asking us to point to Him so that our life
today can be felt 100, 200 and 500 years from now.