Living a Legacy

     Last week one of our beloved worship leaders went home to be with the Lord. Matt Davidson was only 37 years old, and leaves behind a wife, and three children, ages 10, 5, and 2. He was in a car accident last Tuesday, and died unexpectedly on Saturday morning of a pulmonary embolism. While the congregation is saddened by Matt's death, we also take great comfort in knowing that he has been made completely whole in our sweet Savior.
     Matt always had a bright smile on his face, and his love for the Lord was very evident. As my pastor shared the news with us, he told us that when he arrived at the hospital, Matt's wife was breaking the news to the children. He said that she just kept coming back to the statement, "Your Daddy loved Jesus more than anything in the world, and that's what he would want for you, too." My pastor then went on to say something like, "Matt left his family with the greatest legacy; a legacy of loving Jesus." 
      In order to leave a legacy, we have to live our legacy here and now... while we still have the time. The days are short, and we are to number our days and make the very most of them. So, what does living a legacy look like? To me it's loving Jesus and loving others unconditionally. It's serving the least of these, and being Jesus' hands and feet to the hurting. So what keeps us from doing these things? Could it be that we are pursing the wrong things such as wealth, beauty, pleasure, selfishness, perfection, etc.?
    I have once heard it said that when we chase these things, we are chasing after the splendor of Solomon. King Solomon had it all from the world's perspective. He had wealth beyond measure, pleasure, fame, etc. But in the end, he says in the book of Ecclesiastes, "Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun." (Ecc. 2:11) Do you see it? All of these things were meaningless to him because the Lord was not in them. He chased every possible thing that he could, yet wound up completely empty.
     I don't know about you, but I don't want the legacy of my life to say, "Well, she was a good girl, and was always really nice to people." No, I would hope people could say, "She loved her Savior more than life. She was completely sold out to Him." But, this can't happen without actions on my part. If I am not loving Him, and His people well, I might as well be chasing after the wind.
     I saw on the news tonight that from where Matt had been on mission trips around the world, our church is receiving calls from people in Poland saying that they are praying for his family. Wow! What a legacy, indeed.



Please pray for his family during this difficult time.