Timothy Byler, DRE
What is the greatest gift you can offer your children? What is the greatest desire you have for their future? These are questions that to a parent should be of utmost importance. Whether you are a natural parent, or simply have someone whom you lead as a generational voice, the question should stand in the forefront of your mind.
Legacy is important to me. From the time I was a boy, it was fostered in my mind and in my heart. Now, in this middle phase of life, my vantage point is different. As I write this, my oldest daughter and son-in-love will be wed on this day. My youngest son and his fiancé are waiting with great anticipation for their own wedding, less than three months away. My youngest daughter is contemplating her future and this morning, is hard at work to prepare the ministry that she will offer this weekend to our local congregation. My eldest son and daughter-in-love have begun their family. Today on social media is a picture of the sonogram of my first grandchild at twenty weeks of life; looking as though he is relaxing in a hammock with his arms behind his head. What is the legacy I can offer to them?
As I consider this question, I think of my parents. For nearly sixty years, they dedicated their lives to ministry and to making a difference in others.
Knowing you were called to make a difference is one thing. Choosing to do it is another. They not only chose to position themselves to make that difference, they positioned and challenged their children to do so as well. In so doing, they offered us a great gift of legacy. For us, that gift is the gift of faith and of promise. Melded together, it is the gift of purpose.
As a young minister, my father handed me a book, written by Erwin McManus. It was titled, “The Barbarian Way”. To this day, it is one of my favorite inspirations. I read it yearly. I have shared it with many others. The author wrote it to speak of the tribal nature of family. He demonstrates the basics of raw human nature - the way of barbarians. And, he makes clear that one should recognize the tribal tendency of mankind, one can speak the language of trie to lead others to greatness. Barbarians will go all out to conquer. Or, they will use equal strength to move to a cave and protect their own interests. They live wild and untamed. But, if they live unharnessed to vision, their just - wildlings. Left to their own without being led to purpose, the barbarians die out. Doesn’t end so well with them.
“Where there is no vision, people perish…” Proverbs 29:18
When my father handed me that book, it came with the instruction. “You have the heart of a Barbarian. Use that! Go ALL OUT!!!” Dad reiterated the words that he spoke over me during my ordination ceremony:
“I didn’t raise you to exist under my wing. I didn’t raise you to stand under me. I raised you to stand on my shoulders and launch. I want you to go farther than I have ever gone. RUN! Run hard and FAST!
And don’t look back because I am still running behind you.
Don’t you DARE let me catch up with you!”
THAT is the gift of legacy! And, as I consider his words, I consider his current situation. He and mother handed over the keys to everything that they had built and moved to the mountains of north Georgia. In a season when others would retire and just look to their own desires and pursuits, my parents grabbed the handles of a plow and went back to work, pioneering yet one more church and making a difference in the lives of others. Now, less than two years from the age of eighty, they won’t quit! Dad just handed the reigns of his latest established church to a spiritual son in the faith. But he will continue on for the remainder of his days still running his race - not sitting on his laurels. Yep! I have to run hard and fast! THAT is the Barbarian Way.
In his book. McManus took his readers to the story of Elijah, who after having a pretty vigilant conquest was faced with a sense of personal failure, and went to a mountain and hid. God challenged him back to the way.
“Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”
I Kings 19:11-12
I LOVE what God spoke to Elijah in that moment on his mountain hide-away:
“So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
I Kings 19:13
WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? I believe that is “King James” for “Dude! Get your head outta the sand, quit hiding from your failures, and DO what I called you to DO! I did not call you to waste away on a mountain. I designed you with a hope and a future. DO IT!”
Now don’t misunderstand me. I am a mountain boy! I was born in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. My Papaw dug copper out of those hills as a miner. There is nothing like the beauty of the mountains. Yet you have to be careful. The solace of the mountain will kill you! It entices with its tranquility - which is not the same as peace. And, it will pull you into a permanentized, complacent slumber. The mountain is a legacy killer! It becomes a bastion of self awareness that silently leads you into self interest and self fulfillment - the self purpose of just taking care of MY desire. After a while, you start to hear banjo music! Dad, in his own testimony talks about the slumber of the mountains. He almost laid down vision. And, he began to die inside without hardly ever noticing it. Elijah’s mountain was not simply about tranquility. It was the place where he could hide from
all that he felt was wrong in his life.
It was when Elijah left his mountain and re-engaged with the world that he connected with Elisha - his legacy. He could never have positioned Elisha to go forward by calling him to the mountain to share in his ending. Elisha needed to be in the place to make the difference. And, in the end, everything that Elijah did, Elisha did double! He stood on the shoulders of Elijah and ran harder and faster. THAT is the gift of legacy.
“Don’t run to where I am. That has been achieved! Do better. DO MORE!” That is what my parents gave to me. That is what I will strive with every breath in my lungs to give to my children and grandchildren. To entice them to anything less is to invite them to share the grave of my own purpose. It has a shelf life.
Your children - physical or spiritual - were not created to live in the cave. A cave is simply a grave that has not yet been sealed. They were created to rise beyond the cave - to use what you placed in them to go further than you could ever go. They were called to greater than you can even imagine.
Give them that.
Give them the gift of legacy.
© 2022 - Timothy Byler - All rights reserved.
