True legacy consists not of what we leave behind, but of what we instill in others.
Some remember, recount, and celebrate legacies; others forget, mourn, or curse them. And then some disregard legacies, offering neither thought nor deed, celebration nor mourning. But no matter the kind of legacy one leaves, it turns the water wheel of human existence, filling one bucket for the next generation to drink.
Jonathan Edwards left a spiritual inheritance as a great preacher and faithful revolutionary for the kingdom of God. He left us his words, but is that all?
What does a man gain if he wins over the world with his words of heaven’s glories, but fails to cultivate the hearts closest to him to do the same? Jonathan Edwards was a preacher, but he was first a father with a legacy to plant inside his children.
In honoring that role, the majority of Edwards’ descendants included clergymen, lawyers, military officers, professors, doctors, and even a vice president of the United States. Only God knows the spiritual state of each descendant, but the legacy proved good.
In contrast, let’s peel back the layers of another individual, one Max Jukes, and the legacy he left behind in others.
Jukes lived around the same time as Edwards. Among his descendants, the majority were criminals, addicts, and paupers.
His name entered the spotlight when researchers discovered that 42 different men in the New York prison system could trace their family tree back to Jukes.
The principle of spiritual inheritance presented in Proverbs 22 makes a good case in the lives of these men: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not stray from it” (v. 6).
One wonders how different the bedtimes were in the Jukes and Edwards households.
What prayers were said or neglected?
What time was invested or wasted with the children?
Legacy presents a paradox.
People take years to build a good legacy, but one generation can lose it and replace it with a spiraling bad legacy for generations. We can’t be certain that Jukes inherited a putrid legacy. Nor can we assume every Edwards descendants upheld Jonathan’s spiritual legacy. But we do know that a bad legacy moves with an increasing velocity as time progresses.
It’s like rolling a ball down a hill. The further it goes, the faster it goes and the harder it is to stop. That’s not to say it can’t be stopped.
The good legacies and the bad legacies are easy to spot. But what about stale or stagnant legacies? The truth is, in America, most of us are in more danger of leaving behind stale legacies thanks to a growing nihilistic viewpoint and gripping lie that our lives are about us.
But there is a judgment call that says the opposite (Ephesians 2:10). My parents were good people with stale legacies, and they were planting the same in me. It was a legacy of fear and pride (my mother) and a legacy of keeping the status quo (my father).
I would have left the same legacy to my own children if the laws of gravity hadn’t intervened. An object in motion remains in motion unless affected by an outside force, so says Newton’s first law on the subject.
I see this applied to spiritual laws as well. There is only one force outside of the human race strong enough to stop a bad or stale spiritual inheritance in motion, and only one strong enough to redirect it.
When I met my wife, Bethanne, I encountered a new kind of legacy.
It was not stale, but alive, vibrant and apparent in the dynamic love, prayer, and laughter of her family. Then, a Bible placed in my hands, by her uncle, set me on a journey disprove the claims made by members of her family.
I begrudgingly found I couldn’t disprove what I read. I claimed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior with my lips. However, eight years passed before I truly gave Him my life and allegiance. That single decision broke the chain of stale spiritual inheritance in my life.
As I grew in the Lord, my testimony was tested.
My company collapsed and subsequent debt accrued, but the hope for a spiritual legacy left in my children rather than a financial legacy to my children pulled me to my knees, seeking the Lord. My sisters and parents looked leerily at me.
They knew me as a young man: stale, self-inflated, dishonest. My desired legacy was to be a millionaire and savvy businessman. And here I was none of that. How could they understand my transformation?
I now chose integrity, even at the cost of worldly success. What came next could only be described as miraculous. As the Lord changed me, he worked in my nuclear family and my birth family beyond expectation.
The taste of a new legacy was like fresh water to drink, turning the wheels of time, but how quickly it could be taken away!
It almost was. One November afternoon, as I cleaned out the past in my attic and came face to face with issues of old magazines, I would have been mortified for my children to find.
Discovering those remnants of my past could have derailed me, jeopardizing my legacy. In those moments, Satan wants us to cower in fear and guilt. He wants us to, like Adam and Eve, hide from God–ashamed.
But let’s call to mind what the hymnist wrote,
Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come,
let this blest assurance endure:
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate
and has shed his own blood for my soul!
Life doesn’t guarantee us another second to set ourselves or our surroundings in order. When we are gone, we cannot explain things away. Legacy exists in every area of our lives; we should be aware of every nook and cranny of our homes, but even more so our hearts by putting ourselves under God’s critically merciful eye (Psalm 139:23-24).
Here’s what I know: my legacy was not threatened by the existence of old magazines; my legacy in those moments was threatened by how I was going to react to them. Would I allow the lies of Satan to enshroud me in the darkness of that putrid sin? Or, would I look up and fix my eyes on Christ?
I promptly threw those old memories away. But make no mistake, the spiritual inheritance I would leave inside of my children was not preserved in that act, but by the surrender to Christ.
Things can be thrown away, money will be spent. But the imprint a heart lasts on another has eternal consequences, for better or for worse, and sets up the next generation.Is the spiritual inheritance you’re leaving inside of your children good, putrid, or stale?
If the first, hold tight to Christ and remember He is what makes a legacy good and sweet.
The second doesn’t leave you without hope. Appeal to the laws of spiritual gravity; the course of legacy in your life can be changed by Jesus, and only Jesus.
If the third, wake up! Legacy remains as inevitable as the earth’s rotation. We can’t escape it, but we can choose how we shape it.
Joe Pellegrino is a men’s pastor, author, speaker, certified professional life coach, consultant and entrepreneur. He is the president and founder of Legacy Minded Men whose mission is to transform men’s lives by encouraging and equipping them to build a Christ-centered legacy. He has made numerous media appearances and co-authored several books including Safe at Home, Transformed, and That’s My Dad! Joe and his wife, Bethanne, have three children.
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