Men and women don’t live very long;
    like wildflowers they spring up and blossom,
But a storm snuffs them out just as quickly,
    leaving nothing to show they were here.
God’s love, though, is ever and always,
    eternally present to all who fear him,
Making everything right for them and their children
    as they follow his Covenant ways
    and remember to do whatever he said. Excerpt from Psalm 103 (MSG)

I am reflecting this morning on the moment of time that we have here on earth. It really is just a blip on the radar of eternity, and I am repenting for a huge amount of time I have wasted on one simple concept. My Reputation. You see, I have lived a pretty sorry life for many years and as I get older I realize the truth that there are more years behind me than ahead.  There isn’t time to make it all right, and there is no way of erasing what has been.

I don’t believe I am alone in these thoughts. We struggle with our mortality and our sinfulness, while our lives are spent in a wild and fruitless chase for wealth and recognition. We are more concerned with what people’s perception of us is, rather than the true substance of our lives. We sneak around in the shadowy darkness of our stinking pride, not letting anyone see beyond the false veneer we have painstakingly established. It all adds up to a pitifully inadequate existence that is far short of what God intended.

Though we may have had a lifetime of failure and regret, we can change, there is hope in Christ Jesus.

Let’s put all our efforts into accepting wholeness, seeking restoration, finding lasting peace, and true freedom; humbly laying ourselves wide open for the work of the Holy Spirit to bring the real and forever change we wish.

Our lives are a wisp of vapor, and before you can say “rest in peace” we will be pushing up daisies, so the issues of our heart cannot be put off any longer. Let’s seek the face of God with a heart that doesn’t care about our reputation, but what God wants to do through us in our short time on Earth.

It may be that through the utter destruction of the persona we work so hard to keep up, new freedoms and powerful ministry will be released.

Our example, Jesus, laid aside His kingly throne, He made Himself of no reputation and look at all he accomplished!

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phil 2:5-8 (KJV)

Let the legacy we leave be one that was ever and always running to Jesus. Even though we have failed, been given over to sin for a time, running away from Him in our hurt and wounding; that we ultimately sought and found our lives in God. May the legacy we leave be one of restoration, healing, forgiveness, and God’s amazing grace.