Leave a Lasting Legacy for Generations
This week, Lunar New Year is celebrated by many communities all over the world. Common Lunar New Year rituals that are de rigeur and observed by all adherents include the family reunion dinner, donning new clothes, serving tea to parents and elders, and exchanging of auspicious wishes that make conversations atypical! Indeed, it’s not every day that you hear greetings like, “May your life be smooth with energy and vigor, and may you have a life that is full. Happy New Year!” It highlights the strong oral traditions of the communities, emphasizing teaching and traditions passed on from generation to generation. Indeed, Lunar New Year practices are almost sacred! Sociologists assert that recurrent annual celebrations like the Lunar New Year strengthen the solidarity and the collective conscience of all adherents. In the same way, the Bible also emphasizes the importance of passing on biblical teachings and a godly way of life from generation to generation, from our families to people God has placed in our lives. It is the substance of legacy-making in our own lives, the essence of fellowship with other believers, and the impact we make in society. On an everyday basis, many things that we do so naturally are in fact value-laden family traditions passed down to us. Even simple acts like saying thank you to the postman or delivery personnel, the way we dress at home, celebrating birthdays, having family meals, greeting elders who are present and good work ethics are normative practices that we have been taught since young.
How do we live in a way that leaves a lasting legacy? It does not matter if we are living the dream life or facing a challenging dessert experience, if we are childless or single, we all have the substance of legacy to pass on to future generations, to our families, our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues and the people in our communities. Deuteronomy 6:1-9 offers us a timeless guide.
#1 Love God Wholeheartedly (Deut 6:4-6 )
To love God wholeheartedly means to conscientiously guard our hearts against competing gods. They could be our spouse or a romantic partner, our parents, our children, our employers, or anything that takes a sacred place in our hearts. We can cruise through each day giving God a discretionary existence in our lives. We can give him 10 minutes of quiet time in the morning yet go for days or weeks without any real conversations with Him. We do not know what’s really on His heart and mind, and we are too busy to find out.
To love God wholeheartedly involves our entire being, beginning with our hearts. We do not expand our hearts for God to co-exist with competing interests but we expand God’s presence in our hearts so that other things will be put in their right places! Oftentimes, this means we need to learn to stand alone even when we are called fanatics by people who have other ideas for living well. It has been said that if you’ve never had to stand alone, you are always hiding in a crowd, alienated from God’s divine design for your life. If Deuteronomy 6:5-6 was chiseled on stone tablets (twice!), it is now chiseled on our hearts of flesh. In Matthew 22:36-37, Jesus described them as the greatest commandments: “LovetheLordyour God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.”
#2 Teach and testify of God DAILY [Deut 6:7]
Secondly, we cannot love God wholeheartedly and remain-happily silent about our relationship with Him, our testimonies, how the Holy Spirit is revealing things to us and changing the way we think, and our growing love for him. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 made this clear: “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.7Impressthem on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”If we think these are the stuff of Sunday School, we are gravely underplaying the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is also a mistake to think that life-touching conversations are for a privileged few like pastors and outspoken people. Don’t even compare with those who boast about their success in cryptocurrency or NFTS (Non-fungible tokens which are digital assets) trading in the virtual world. We have a rich spiritual inheritance because of our relationship with God and these are not accessible to natives in the virtual world(Ephesians 1:18). Right now, there are conversations with some people in your life that are waiting for you to start. You may think that it’s not the right time yet. But if not today, then when? How do you start a conversation with someone about God? Psalm 71:15-18offers this tip: “My mouth will tell of Your righteous deeds, of Your saving acts all day long–though I know not how to relate them all. I will come and proclaim Your mighty acts, SovereignLORD; I will proclaim Your righteous deeds, Yours alone. Since my youth, God, You have taught me, and to this day I declare Your marvelous deeds.”.
#3 Be Conscious of God Daily [Deut 6:8-9]
To be conscious of God is not to conjure up His presence. We cannot make God appear at will just by raising our hands, closing our eyes in meditation, or saying ‘God is here!’. On the other hand, we can be in the midst of a life tornado, or great turmoil and chaos, and still be acutely aware that God is with us. Deuteronomy 6:8-9 talks about the visible emblems that help us to stay God-conscious: “Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”The Bible uses words that are highly symbolic, just like Lunar New Year practices! It is hard to hide a prominent symbol on our doorways, foreheads hands! They are the most visible and public part of our existence. In the same way, we are to be mindful of what we do with our hands all day, the quality of thoughts that occupy our minds, and the kind of interests, language, and habits we allow in our homes.
Think about times when you say ‘my hands are tied’ –what and who exactly tied them? Or consider times, when you prefer to avoid standing out when speaking up, which will help someone –what’s going through your mind? Or when you permit an unmarried child to bring a friend home to spend the night –what values are you standing up for and how are you protecting your child from sin?
To be sure, living with a consciousness of God will create the following positive effects in our lives:
▪Cause us to be aware of His Presence and His Holiness.
▪Convict us of our sins and bring us to a reset through repentance.
▪Make us confident in knowing that God is our healer, deliverer, provider -our all-in-all sufficiency!
Finally, legacy is not leaving something for people. It’s leaving something in people (Peter Strople).
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR session held on 5 February 2022.
