T HERE’S a new and growing trend — perhaps you’ve heard of it, or even been involved with it — ethical wills. Some people call them legacy letters.
These are non-legal hopes, wishes and dreams written by one generation for the following generations in regards to values, finances, life goals, and those sorts of things. Your parents’ or grandparents’ legacy of values passed to you.
This idea is not new. References to this tradition are found in both the Old and New Testament. In Genesis chapter 49, an old and dying Jacob calls for his sons. Jacob blesses them, and gives to each son an appropriate blessing. Jesus, in the Gospel of John, the section known as the “farewell discourse,” Jesus passes to the disciples his vision for the future, the task to which they are called, the promise of God’s Spirit.
An ethical will, or legacy letter, is a way to share your values, blessings, life’s lessons, hopes and dreams for the future, love, and forgiveness with your family, friends, and community.
† † †
IN OUR OLD TESTAMENT READING, Jeremiah brings the whole Rechabite family to a room in the Temple. The whole family shows up — leaders, brothers, children, wives, daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins — the whole clan comes to the Temple, like a big family reunion.
At the Temple the Rechabites are offered a glass of wine to go with their hors d’oeuvres. They refuse the offer. Every one of them. The young, the old. The men, the women. Each said, “no thanks.” Now, this is not a story about the negatives of drinking wine. It’s about legacy and commitment. They explain why they don’t drink wine.
Their ancestor Jehonadab (you can read about him in 2 Kings 10) left the family an ethical will, or a legacy letter. Values he wanted them to uphold. This included prohibitions against drinking wine. They are to live a nomadic lifestyle. For nearly 250 years the Rechabites have done “all that our ancestor Jehonadab commanded.” For 250 years this family continues to live under his values and influence.
God commends them for their faithfulness and obedience to Jehonadab, their father. They are an example of steadfastness. God desires His people to live in obedience and steadfastness to Him. And to pass that from one generation to another.
† † †
THERE ARE SOME family legacies that don’t need to be passed on to our children or future generations.
■ A recent memoir is a lesson in how our identity and self-esteem are molded by those charged with the task of raising us. Rejection and frustration are running themes. Lisa Brennan-Jobs is the author. You might know her father, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. In her memoir, Small Fry, she writes how for years her father largely ignored both her and her mother. Even to the point of denying he was Lisa’s father. His legacy to her is of a father who was petty, thin-skinned and vindictive, almost pathologically distant.
■ Sally Field writes in her newly released memoir, In Pieces, of an abusive stepfather. As I said, there are some family legacies that don’t need to be passed on to our children.
† † †
LET’S TALK A MINUTE about a spiritual legacy. This is a legacy of faith. What comes to mind when you think of Lois and Eunice? Now we have two wonderful women in our church named Lois and Eunice, but I’m talking about the biblical Lois and Eunice in Timothy. Timothy’s sincere faith was first lived in his grandmother Lois and then in his mother Eunice. They left him a spiritual legacy.
A spiritual legacy is all about your relationship with the Lord — the stories of your past and present walk with Jesus given to the future. These stories acknowledge the bad times, but combine them with the good that God creates in and through you. It is the Jesus experiences you share and the memories you create that impact people’s lives for eternity.
Your spiritual legacy is like a baton that you begin to pass on to the next generation even while you live. Your family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors can grab onto this baton and run with it now and long after your portion of the race is finished.
Your spiritual legacy consists of:
■ The stories of how you respond to life’s difficulties
■ How you celebrate, how you worship
■ How you pray
■ How you make a difference in the lives of others
■ How you conquer your bad attitudes and habits
■ How you handle disappointments
■ What you do with your finances
■ How you talk about people
■ How you treat your family and others
† † †
LIKE MANY PEOPLE, you probably want to impact your world with your life. And you are impacting your world — even if you don’t realize it. What will the record of your life journey look like? What are your stories of God in your journey? If those who follow you do not know your journey, how will they have a legacy to grab onto?
A spiritual legacy is a clear record — written or oral — of your walk of faith, communicating that living for Jesus and being empowered by his grace is more than enough. What are the most important things about Jesus that you would like your friends and family to learn from your life? How will that happen?
