How you want to be remembered?

 

For a few minutes, forget the fear of dying and look at your life from the outside. If your time was up tomorrow, what kind of legacy would you leave behind? Besides your friends, who would miss you? Apart from your family, who would mourn for you? And who, ultimately, would have benefited from knowing you? How many lives would your life have influenced? Would anyone pay attention to your passing, or would it go unnoticed? Five years after your passing, would your memory — your presence — still live on?

Hard questions to answer and, sometimes, hard answers to face. Fortunately, there's still time to change your life for the better. If you're not where you want to be, it's not too late — yet. But personal growth doesn't come easily or painlessly. Those who contemplate on the above questions seriously, would want to make some meaningful shift to lead a quality life. That shift demands commitment to change with perseverance and dedication. When one lives a life full of purpose and inspiration, they are cherished and followed by many. Their influence continues to impact lives, even though they pass from this mortal world.

Mr. Steve Harper from the book “Ripple Effect” states, “Even though our physical bodies break down, I believe our spirit and memory live on in the lives we've touched. In my imaginary funeral, the friends and family present are living treasure chests, filled with good memories of our time together. As long as they continue to cherish those memories, I'll never be truly gone. I'll continue to impact the lives of the people I cared about long after my body has turned to dust. That's something I find both reassuring and powerful.”. How true!

We don’t have to dwell on our death and this blog isn’t emphasizing the same, but I believe that it is relevant to think about the kind of lasting impression you'll leave on, in this world. How will you be remembered? And by whom? The connections we form with the people around us, whether at home, in the office or on the playground, define the pattern of our lives. It's the relationships in our lives — with God, with ourselves, with our family and friends, with our co-workers, even with casual acquaintances — that matters most. This is why Jesus never formed a religion with set of rules and rituals but the summarized the entire laws in two greatest commandments i.e., to love the Lord with all our heart, strength, mind and soul and to love others as we love ourselves.

We need to constantly remind ourselves that we don’t own anything in this world. Though we have our properties legally in our name, when we are called to eternal home, we have no choice but to go empty handed. What counts is how well we lived here and did we actually find the savior in this earth for the remission of our sins? Or are we finding salvation in our good works and rituals, which don’t give us guarantee? This is God’s world, let us not forget it. It is only knowing the Savior and making Him the Lord of your life that will save your soul for eternity. Jesus exuberantly claimed because of His resurrection from His death by these words, “I live therefore you will live also.”. Prepare yourself not to just be a legend on this earth but to live eternally with God.

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