WHERE ARE THE SAGES OF YOUR LEGACY?

 I’ve been thinking about Life Stuff a lot lately.  Methinks it’s related to discovering that my well-behaved prostate cancer has decide to roam about for a new place to hang out.  

To use my new perspective as a hammer, I’m here to announce: ”Life is SHORT!”  Even momentary reflections should cause us—no matter our age or our state of denial—to take stock.  Wanna guess what my inventory uncovered and how it affects the legacy I’m increasingly focused on?

I came up with a nice new take.  Interpreting life and applying it correctly to reality is the mark of a SAGE.  This thought was prompted by Dr. Lynady guest posting on one of my favorite blogs by one of my favorite people, Gary Barkalow.  (You MUST visit www.thenobleheart.com.  Gary has just published a book worthy of a serious read, “It’s Your Call,”  how we discover and apply the purpose, “the glory,” God has designed for each of us.

“So,” says Lynady,” where do we find the sages? First, there aren’t many. Second, they are out on the frontier, living without a map. Third, they typically have a ‘voice’ of humility. It may look like they have all the answers, but they’ll be the first to tell you they don’t.”  Then they tend to want others to join them on the lonely frontier, mainly to help you on your own journey.

What a powerful note that was for me. So many wise-asses, so few wise. All my now extended I’ve sought out sages. Actually, I didn’t know enough to identify them as such as a young man…but I knew I needed someone of greater measure who could pass life down to me or across to me.  Ah, the Sage. Yes, they are now my best friends, men–and women–of substance and who have eternal dimension.

How about you?  I feel my eyes twinkle a little to think I can look in the mirror and, at last, see one more sage ready to pass it down to my progeny. “Sage” can NOT be found in the blood line, it is found in legacy. Legacy is vital to finishing well.  Legacy is not serendipitous.  Legacy is intentional.  Have you begun to triangulate the connection between you and the sages in your life and your children--even your grandchildren--multiplying the wisdom of the ages?   

You can discover (as most of us do) you gain “sage” status somewhat accidentally.  But passing it on to “the seed of your loins?” Now THAT is a deliberate project.  Have you started?  And when they scatter your ashes, will a smile come to the faces of those seedlings when the holy man recites Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”