1 Chron 3-5 Ambition, Legacy, Making the List

May 1st, 1 Chronicles 3-5

       Another day of names, another day to ponder life's reality. We live in a star struck world. A world where people can be famous worldwide, my name can be known. Our computer age makes things possible that were never even a remote possibility before. Even in the midst of that we lean toward something that can create some form of frustration if we aren't careful.
       A large portion of us will live a simple live in our little cube of the planet and our name will never enter a historical textbook, or even a footnote. Probably no movie about us, certain people live in great moments and do remarkable things, but that is few of us.
       The list of names in today's passage that stand alongside more well known names is a good healthy reminder for us. Few of us will be David, Solomon, Dietrich Bonehoeffer, or Billy Graham.
       People get consumed with leaving a Legacy. Somehow people want their name remembered. I remember and interview with Rich Mullins. The interviewer was asking question about his legacy and what kind of things he would want to be part of that. Rich's humble observation was that if he had an "ambition to leave a legacy, all he'd leave as a legacy is ambition" and that he wasn't interested in that kind of legacy.
       People leave a legacy when they blindly care greatly about something and pour their lives into that. Not with a hope that people would remember, but because they genuinely cared deeply. Mother Theresa didn't find a way to leave a legacy, she cared deeply for the poor in India. She would have done that regardless of the notoriety that would or would not come.
       Dietrich Bonehoeffer did what was right as a pastor in Nazi Germany when the cowardice of other pastors pushed him to the outside. It wasn't a dream of being remembered as much as a conviction in the most difficult times to do the right thing. Conviction leads to great testimony. My grandparents had a great testimony, few outside of our family will remember over time.
       Our lives may never even amount to a footnote in a journal, and a desire to leave a legacy might bring us to a wrong place. Be faithful to God, walk in conviction, serve the Lord with gladness. The light of Christ in us, might never find a large stage, but it will be a beacon for some. Let your light so shine before men, that they might see your good works and glorify your father in heaven!!