Only what’s done for Christ will last

My father is a mist in the wind, just like the rest. In the overall scheme of things, he was here for a moment and then he will be gone. But who he was and how he lived his life certainly had their affect on me; whether for good or for bad. Mostly good, I hope.

One way or another, his life left its indelible mark on mine. In some cases I learned and avoided some of his mistakes. In some I’ve repeated them. In other ways my fundamental character was shaped by the values he taught and lived. If I exhibit honesty, integrity, truthfulness, courage, kindness, to a large degree I can attribute that to the values that my father and mother tried to instill in me.

And in ways you’ll probably never realize, what he instilled in me has now affected your lives. It’s the ripple effect.

Everyone can point to someone in their past that left them the same kind of legacy.
Simply because they were imperfect men and women, just like my dad, they left you both good and bad. But the fact is, they impacted not only your life, but the lives you’ve affected because of what you’ll pass on.

My father’s influence in my life has influenced the life of my children, and it will influence their children, just as his life was influenced by his father and his grand-father.

So recognition that your days are in God’s hands and you ought to lay presumption and arrogance aside and seek His will for the day, you should also remember that having done so, in making your plans and setting your goals you should remember that the daily decisions and actions you take will have a profound effect, even on generations after you.

When you measure the nature of the impact of the lives of men and women down through history, using the plumb line of scripture and the lives of those who have served God against those who have not, then it becomes clear that the amount of time they lived didn’t matter, whether long or short; the enormity of their acts didn’t matter; the wideness in scope of the overall effects of their deeds didn’t matter; the degree of worldly celebrity and power and acclaim they attained to didn’t matter.

In fact, although you have names, like Moses and Abraham and Paul and Peter who have been the greatest and most influential names in history, for the most part, the people who have had the greatest and most significant impact on history never received celebrity or acclaim. At least, not here. But you can bet their names are known in Heaven.

Because when it comes right down to it, no word was ever written or spoken truer than this; ‘only what’s done for Christ will last’.

My friends, My Dads life is so close to the end And just like His moments His days His years were like a mist, here for a moment and they vanish we are but the same.
You don’t have long. None are here for long.

But the backward view shows that even in the brief time you’re here, your life can make an astounding impact that will have a ripple effect on generations to come. Not just for your own family, but in the lives of anyone who has been exposed to the claims and the person of Jesus Christ through you.