Leave Your Mark

“Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” – James 4:14

Today I’ve been thinking about the transient nature of life. I don’t say this to be morbid, but life is fleeting. We get so caught up in the details of our lives that we don’t realize we aren’t promised tomorrow.

 I was thinking about my life and my expectations this time last year. I, like everyone, assumed that my world would continue ticking on in the way it had always done – as I had planned it. In January and February, there were so many things I was putting off. Things I needed to say to people or things I wanted to do. I left things to be done down the road; I just didn’t see the roadblock coming.
 
 When March rolled around, our lives as we knew them changed. There were still opportunities to live life fully, but there were some chances that had just passed me by. There were chances where I could have made a difference or an eternal impact, but I chose instead to live for the things that, in retrospect, do not matter as much as I once thought they did.

 Today I am a spiritual influencer, but one day my influence will come to an end. What legacy do I want to have left behind?
 
 For me, personally, I want my legacy to be that I had God’s heart for the people He placed in my care. I want to shepherd the people I have influence over by pointing them back to The Shepherd. I want to contend in prayer for the brokenhearted.

 I want to bring people closer to the presence of God by meeting them where they are and inviting God’s peace into the situation. I want to see healing and miracles; not because I have the power to make them happen, but because God’s power is in me. I believe that God has anointed me with a confidence in the power of intercession.
 
 My life has been personally impacted and shaped by those who pray and those who have taught me to pray. I have a history with the Holy Spirit that I am only now beginning to understand as I grow in spiritual maturity. I am learning that He has been there, teaching me, all along. I just didn’t have the words or the understanding of Him yet.
 
 One morning, I was praying for people in Athens who didn’t even know God to suddenly be awakened to His presence and to recognize His influence on their lives. I suddenly saw a scene from the movie ‘Tangled’ in my mind.
 
 It was the scene from the end of the movie where Rapunzel is sitting on her bed, holding the flag with the symbol of the kingdom (she’s actually the princess, but she doesn’t realize it yet). When she has the epiphany that the symbol was also on her mobile as a baby, she realizes that she was the lost princess. And – here is the amazing part – she realizes that she has been painting that very same symbol into all her art without even realizing it.
 
I had the sense that this is what it’s like when you start looking for places where the Holy Spirit has been moving in your life. You might not even have realized His impact if you were not living in a full knowledge of your birthright, but He was still moving and active, leaving His mark.

At the end of my life, I want to look back and see the marks of the Holy Spirit over anything I have created. More than leaving my mark on this world, I want to see His mark on my life.

I want to see that Jesus was the King and the center of my life. I want to know that nothing was held in higher regard than my God. Only then will I be leaving a legacy worth remembering.
 
I know that this life is a journey and I will continue learning ways to increase God’s Kingdom, but now is a good time to start. It’s time to live for what will outlive me.
 
 Note: If you want to listen to some good early 2000s music, this series has got me thinking about a song called ‘Legacy’ by Nicole Nordeman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnHl_sF_54A
 
 Author  |  Mackenzie Wells