Making a Legacy podcast notes

The legacy that we leave on this earth will not be made with things. Our legacy in this world will no be based on buildings we have built or cars we’ve bought or restored or home improvement projects we’ve completed. It will not be established by fashion lines we’ve designed or the interior decorating we’ve done. It certainly won’t be established by the clothes we wear or the shoes we’ve bought. The legacy we leave is established in the lives of the people around us. It’s in the children that we raise and the friends we believe in and the co-workers that we bring the best out of. Our legacy is not established with things. It’s established in relationships.

I do believe there are exceptions to that rule.

Pablo Picasso. He is the most famous artist in the 20th century. His subjects weren’t that famous because you could never recognize them from the paintings, but Picasso was huge. Here’s a picture of Pablo.

Henry Ford. Car designer. Henry Ford is famous for once saying that you could have your Model T in any color as long as it’s black. Here’s Henry

Frank Lloyd Wright- Architect. Designed the guggenheim He was once quoted as saying, “A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.”

We believe we make our legacy in the lives of people. We believe that things are temporary and people are forever. But when you look at how we spend our time, we don’t practice what we preach.

We spend a massive amount of time in pursuit of a career that will establish our legacy.
We spend huge amounts of time on decorating and redecorating
We carefully choose cars that will represent us as we deserve
We have become obsessed with our technology.
The time we have remaining we do spend on people. Us. We focus on how we look and what makeup we wear and our fitness and comfort and happiness.

If you simply take the amount of time that we spend on work and building corporations and hair and makeup and establishing image it’s hard to come to the conclusion that we believe that legacy is established through relationships.

“So do you think I have is overstated my opinion?” Jonathan responded, “Actually, it does makes me want to debate it.”

David you won’t build me a house. It will not happen in your lifetime. You will be long dead. It’s your son who is going to do it.

Did God say no because it was a bad idea?

Nope. Sure doesn’t appear that way.

Did God say no because of some sin or mistake?

Doesn’t seem like it. That wasn’t the reason that God gave, at least in this moment.

2 thoughts to consider when it comes to your legacy

  1. Just because you don’t get something you asked for doesn’t mean you did anything wrong

There was a job you were up for that you didn’t get
There was a college you really wanted to go to but didn’t get in
There was a girl you really wanted to date who thought you were a loser
There was a guy you wanted to marry and he liked that waitress
You picked out the perfect house and it went to someone else
You didn’t make the team
The promotion went to someone else
You didn’t hear back from the interview

The moment it happened you thought, “What did I do wrong God? Did I mess up? Did I sin? What happened here?”
Have you ever been there? That happened just last week. I was interviewing for this job and… I’m kidding. There are times that we don’t get what we want and it’s so easy to go to this place of “I messed up. God is punishing me.” I think David may have felt that. But here’s the twist
I don’t think David is being kept from the temple because of his sin. In the verses we read God seems to give no reason. There is a moment later on where David sheds a little light on what God was thinking. Look with me at 1 Chronicles 22:6-10 David is old and done with being king so he brings his son Solomon to his side. This isn’t quite a last dying wish, but it’s close.

7 David said to Solomon: “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God. 8 But this word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. . 1 Chronicles 22:

Looks like God didn’t want David to build his temple because he had shed too much blood. That’s feels like a pretty good reason to not build a temple for God. Here’s the problem I have with that. God is the one who sent him to war.

Psalm 130 puts it like this If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,Lord, who could stand?

2) You’re greatest success may not be what you accomplish but what you pass on to the next generation

David wasn’t allowed to build the temple so David poured all his time and attention to making sure that his son was a success.

Maybe our goal should be to set up the future generation for success. There are all kinds of ways we can do that
Pray for our kids
Raise them in the church
Care for the kids in your neighborhood
Teach Sunday school
Volunteer in our youth ministry
Mentor a young prodigy at your work

If all you do is to shift that environment and break that legacy of abuse you are a success. If all you do is trade dysfunction for function you are a success.

I am living out someone’s dream. My father’s dream to be a pastor.
Slide of monogram stamp

My dad collected hundreds of ministry books and he handed them all off to me. Inside each one of them is this mark. It says “Library of Jack Hawkins” and in the middle are the initials JWH.

There are lots of ways you can leave a legacy. You can leave a legacy in things like Pablo Picasso and Henry Ford and Frank Lloyd Wright. You can work your whole life so that people will notice what you have done and hopefully remember you fondly. Or you can leave your legacy in people.

As I was writing, just out of curiosity I decided to do a little research on the relational lives of Picasso and Ford and Wright. Just to see if their personal legacy was as strong as their physical legacy. This is what I found.

The first article I read about Picasso said this. “Women are machines for suffering,” Picasso told his mistress Françoise Gilot in 1943. Indeed, as they embarked on their nine-year affair, the 61-year-old artist warned the 21-year-old student: “For me there are only two kinds of women, goddesses and doormats”.  Of the seven most important women in Picasso’s life, two killed themselves and two went mad. Another died of natural causes only four years into their relationship. Picasso had affairs with dozens, perhaps hundreds of women, and was true to none of them. I didn’t read anything about his relationship with his children, but with that background it would be nearly impossible to have any kind of relationship with them.

When I researched Henry Ford a couple moments stood out. Henry Ford had a newspaper called the Dearborn Independent. He wrote so many anti-semitic articles that they were compiled by Theodor Fritsch, member of the Reichstag, and made into a book called The International Jew, The world’s foremost problem. He was the president of Ford until his daughter in law led a coup and placed her son as the new president.

Frank Lloyd Wright had six children with his wife Catherine but left her to care for them. He was described as “not parental.” In 1903, Wright designed a house for Edwin Cheney, a neighbor in Oak Park, and immediately took a liking to Cheney’s wife, Mamah. Years later Wright and Mamah met up in Europe, leaving their spouses and children behind. While working away in Chicago, one of his hired workers killed Mamah and 6 other people on the Wright estate. Wright married again to Miriam Noel but her addiction to morphine led to divorce in less than one year.

Look, you can try to make a name for yourself through buildings with your name on it or pictures that the world recognizes or a car that bears your name but if that is the focus of your life you may miss a real legacy. Legacies are made through people, not things. Let me end with this question. How are you building your legacy?

“Most of what we leave our children and grandchildren are memories,” Bart Astor

“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.” — Shannon L. Alder

SOCIAL MEDIA APPS encourage us to share certain parts of our lives and particular versions of our selves. Judging by Facebook, you’d think everyone you know is in a happy, healthy relationship—it’s weird to post a status update saying you’re lonely or pining for your ex. Instagram’s no different: You share a pic of your meal at the hot new brunch spot, not the French-bread pizza you just warmed in the microwave.

I have here a pair of shoes. They have been in my office for years now. They are signed by Luke Walton. Luke Walton was a journeyman basketball player in the NBA. He was probably known more for being Bill Walton’s son. He did win a few championships with the Lakers. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that he watched from the bench as Kobe won a few championships. I used to joke that these shoes would be worth more without the signature than with them. Then Luke got a job as an assistant coaching the Golden State Warriors. Then their Coach needed surgery and Luke became the interim coach. Luke Walton lead the warriors to a 24-0 record to start the season. The previous record was 15-0 to start a season. He technically doesn’t get credit for any of those wins because Steve Kerr was still the coach even though he was injured. So Luke’s record was 0-0 but he was named coach of the month in December.

These shoes might be worth something now. They are valuable because they were signed by the owner. When we live a life of honesty, integrity, and authenticity, God’s signature is on us. We are living the way he wants. That kind of lifestyle leaves a legacy.

Leave a legacy of authenticity
2) Leave a legacy of conflict resolution
3) Leave a legacy of encouragement