I have previously written about our legacies, first when writing about Bob, a friend from church, and more recently about my mother in law. Recently, my wife Tammy and I attended a class that addressed our legacies and what our message will be to the next generation.
For many years, Bob Smart, our longtime pastor, has taught the information from his series on the seasons of spiritual formation (Identity, Calling, Intentionality and Legacy). There is a short book that goes with each of these classes. The book for the Legacy class is Legacy from Christ: What’s My Message?
Pastor Smart tells us that the Christian in this final season of spiritual formation is a blessed person, and their influence is greater than ever before. This season is designed to shape us into the glorious likeness of Jesus Christ. It will sufficiently prepare us to leave this earth with a message and a benediction, and to enter eternity in heaven and the new earth. The spiritual formation season of legacy is the best season to speak the message God has given you. This is a season of life to reflect and clarify how we may speak well of others’ futures, express our lives’ messages, and prepare our final wills and testaments.

Pastor Smart tells us that the main challenge we will face in the season of legacy is how to suffer well. Suffering well begins with good theology and the gospel. We must speak the gospel to others and ourselves in the midst of suffering and old age. We must offer messages of gospel hope and wait patiently for the Lord to bring us through our afflictions. Suffering believers seem to have the most powerful messages because they persevere with hope. On the other hand, Pastor Smart tells us that the greatest privilege of this spiritual formation season is being the influential sage (wise old person), that we are.
In our class, as in the book, the goal was to discover a sense of our legacy from Christ in this last season of spiritual formation, and to write out our final message from Christ to the next generation.
The key question in this season of spiritual formation is this: what’s my message? Have you ever thought of that? I have friends who have written, or are in the process of writing, books about their life story to pass on to their grandchildren and their children. Tammy’s sister and husband recently created books about their lives that they have passed on to their children, who will then pass them on to their children, etc.
Like us, you may not have children or grandchildren. If that is your situation, what is your message to your nieces and nephews, young people in church, etc.?
Have you ever thought of writing your own obituary? That is something that Tammy and I are planning to do soon. Much more than the basic biographical information normally included in obituaries, we want to share the Gospel with those who read them. After all, isn’t that what is truly important – whether people are saved or not?
I hope this has given you some motivation to consider what your message will be to those who will follow you. I mentioned that a few people have written books about their lives to pass along to their loved ones. Have you considered doing something like that, or perhaps to write your own obituary?