Good Morning Everyone
Today is Monday March 26, 2012
The word of the day comes from Joshua 4:20-24
20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” [1]
Each generation I believe God gives them something that alters the way they do things, changes the perspective on how they view things and leaves a lasting impression on the things they believe in. In our parents days they had things like shooting of President Kennedy and man on the moon. Specifically for our people, we have the riots in Watts, and of course Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. In our parents’ parents generation they had Rosa Parks, the Great Depression and for some younger, even Woodstock. For our generation what do we have? The passing of Biggie & Pac, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and President Barack Obama all stand as historic moments in our history that we pass down to those who are to come because they impacted our lives in ways we can never imagine.
As I look at our text today, the word legacy keeps jumping out at me. What does the word legacy mean to you?
My John C. Maxwell Leadership Bible states that: effective leaders look for ways to use the successes of today to empower their people for the challenges of tomorrow. Joshua did exactly that.
Although God would work a miracle to allow the people to cross the Jordan on dry ground, Joshua knew that only those who saw the incident would remember it- and he wanted to leave a legacy for the next generation, born long after the miracle occurred. Joshua wanted to find a way to communicate God’s greatness to the children of Israel yet-to-be-born.
Good leaders always provide “handles” (the stones served as handles to communicate what God had done) to enable their people to grab hold of the vision. Effective leaders find a way to communicate future vision and past victories, because their people need to be constantly reminded of both.
That is key the last statement made. Future vision and past victories…people need to be constantly reminded of both. Why do you think that is?
Regardless if we are aware or not, the things that happen to us in this life have a founding, defining, potentially life affecting and altering aspect on our lives. I watched the movie “Adjustment Bureau” last night and the whole movie was about what happens when you have a chance encounter with someone. The type of encounter that you can’t get out of your brain. The type of encounter that changes the course you were previously on and makes you move in a new direction.
So how do we relate that to today’s text? Well in our lives, we have the opportunity to become a memorial generations from now, when others look over our life, the lasting impact that we had could forever be remembered. I think of people like Abraham Lincoln and his memorial here in DC, Martin Luther King Jr. has his own holiday, Malcolm X has a movie made in his honor, Dr. Ben Carson has a biography written about him and so forth. Each one of us has an opportunity, the same opportunity as these great men to be an influence in the earth. Each one of us has an opportunity to be a memorial in our families. What I do now goes beyond my wife and kids. As long as I’m alive my wife and kids are taken care of. That isn’t an issue. I’m thinking about my kids’ kids. I want them to look back at the opportunity, the wealth, the vision I left for them to walk in; that when they look back on their great grandfather, they see the impact that I had in the earth, the legacy I left for them. What legacy are you leaving for your family? What legacy are you leaving for your community, your generation? Have you thought about that? Have you envisioned yourself as a memorial for your children’s children to one day look at and say “Who was my great grandfather/grandmother? Who was that person? What did they do that allowed for their impact to still be felt on us today?”
These are the type of questions that we need to begin to think about it that we can leave a lasting impression, a legacy as believers in the earth for Christ Jesus, for our families, for our communities, for our generations.
Have a wonderful, blessed, productive, stress free day!
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