Life Sentence

yesterday we attended an interesting talk by one of the member in church. his topic is ‘leaving a legacy’. discovering your God-given mission in life. a quote from John Maxwell, “I have never worked a single day in my life”. what he meant was if we are in our life mission, then what we are doing is not mundane and tiring. instead, it is enjoyable and we will look forward to do it everyday. a life mission is something we will continue to do with delight even after we have retired. we have seen many people chasing after a certain type of lifestyle. they think they are fulfilling their life mission. but once they retire, after a few years, many of them become senile or even dead. why? cos they no longer do that so called ‘life mission’ they thought they had.

our legacy is determined by ourselves. not by others. cos it’s a personal choice on how to live out lives. what is a life sentence? when you think of certain people in this world, eg. Lee Kuan Yew, Deng Xiao Ping, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Michael Jordan, Pst Kong, how would you describe them or what they have done? survey has shown that no matter how famous a person is, when he or she is dead, gone for 10 years, 20 years, when others talk about them, normally we will describe about their entire life in just one sentence. not a paragraph, not a chapter, not a book. that is Life Sentence.

Lee Kuan Yew – the father of Singapore
Deng Xiao Ping – the man who opened China
Abraham Lincoln – America civil war
Mother Teresa – a great humatarian
Michael Jordan – the greatest NBA player
Pst Kong – the founder of CHC

what would others say of us when we are gone? what will our children remember us as? start living the way we want others to remember us for. a great man! a loving father! a friend in times of need!

another author mentioned this in his book, that everyone should attend their own funeral once a year. what he mean is that we should have a vision of our own funeral yearly. vision what would others say in our funeral. that will help us to stay focus in our life mission. sounds scary, but has its truth la.

how can we leave a legacy?
idea 1: decide what is important and write it down
(a) to love God wholeheartedly
(b) to keep my family in Christ and lead them to love God
(c) to lead more people to God and help them stay spiritual

idea 2: make memories
(a) spend time with my children, love is spelt T-I-M-E
(b) spend time with God, remember the special experiences

idea 3: practice spiritual disciplines
(a) prayer, worship, fellowship, stewardship, evangelism