Following up on an earlier post, I am reposting a series on legacy over the next several days.
The first thing we can do to establish a lasting legacy in the lives of our people is to
BE fruitful where we are.
BE fruitful. Where we are and in whatsoever season we are in. BE fruitful.
Two passages help us with this truth...
Psalm 1:3 -He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
Notice that middle phrase - "yields its fruit in its season". This describes a prosperous tree, a sturdy and stable tree and such a tree yields its fruit in its season. There are different seasons in our lives, my friends, and those call for different fruits. The differing demands and opportunities of one season of my live will call for differing fruits to be produced.
Oh, how easy it is to get distracted by someone else's season and think we should be producing the same fruit they are! When we are in a life stage with littles, we might long for the days of "freedom". Or in a season of singleness, we ache to not be alone. Such distraction is counterproductive to fruit-bearing. There is fruit to be cultivated and harvested in every season - we don't pick pumpkins in February and the best tomatoes are definitely in July.
For our legacy to be lasting, we must focus on the season we are in and not miss the fruit for that season. The fruit borne in each appropriate season has seeds that will in turn bear fruit in future seasons...and in different places.
Which brings us to passage #2 - I Peter 1:1 contains a powerful truth for legacy creations. Let's take a look at it -Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen
I want us to focus on one word - "scattered".
Now that word "scattered" does not refer to the way my basement looks when all the toys are left out, cluttered and in disarray. Not at all. Rather, the Greek word that we translate as "scattered" is actually an agricultural term. "Diaspora" is the word used to describe what a farmer does when he sows seed, deliberating placing each seed in exactly the right conditions for growth and , you guessed it, fruit-bearing.
So what we take from Peter's choice of the word, as directed by the Holy Spirit, is to grasp the truth that wherever we are, we have been planted there with purpose. God places each of us - aliens that we are to this earth - in the spot He picks out with Eternal plans intended. How easy it is to miss the fruit He desires for us to bear if we don't realize the divine purpose for our being there. Without this realization, we are apt to shortchange the legacy we could be building.
That place of redirection? It was not a chance job move - that job was only the tool God used to get you to His next assignment for Eternity. That place of emotional isolation? It need not propel you into barren depression but rather it can be just what God uses to deepen your sensitivity to others and their needs. That place of relational pain - it can be where you witness God's resurrection power to birth a glorious newness, if you let Him. That place of financial disappointment? It may or may not be a result of God's discipline but it surely can be the place where God teaches your heart the great gain of contentment.
To leave a lasting legacy, we have to bear fruit. We must see each place as His divine appointment and each season as brimming with heavenly potential.
And we must understand some spiritual truths about fruit....but we will look at that next time...