Recycle Yourself

"Recycle yourself"

As I was driving home for work this week and stuck in 280's lovely rush-hour traffic, this was the statement plastered on the back of the SUV in front of me. Written in fine print below this slogan was the imperative to be an organ donor.

Are you recycling yourself? I'm not talking about donating your organs, I'm referring to giving your life for God's glory and for the sake of others. The way to recycle yourself is to invest your life in the eternal.

Think about the legacy you want to leave on this earth. How do you want to be remembered? What kind of change do you want to effect in this world? Are you making a difference for God in the lives of people and in the lives of generations to come?

Are you even on the path leading to the type of legacy you want to leave? Or is your current reality a far cry from where you'd like to be?

Abraham died this week - in my devotions, that is. As I was studying the portion of Genesis 25 that closes the curtain on Abraham's life, I contemplated his legacy. The New Testament is riddled with mention of this patriarch, and for me, two aspects of his legacy stand out in Scripture.

1. Faith
From leaving Ur to trusting God's promises to sacrificing Isaac, Abraham believed God. Throughout his life, God was teaching Abraham how to live by faith. While he didn't always get it right, Father Abraham was faithful overall, and "...his example became the reference point to understanding that salvation comes through faith" (R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing). God was not only teaching Abraham about faith, He was using Abraham's life to teach others about faith (James 2; Hebrews 11). What God teaches us is not just for us alone. It is also for the sake of others.

2. Christ
Abraham lived in covenant with God by faith, and God chose to establish His people through Abraham and to bless the nations through his offspring. This came to fulfillment in Christ. Christ came through Abraham's line, and He made reconciliation possible between man and God. This is the inheritance that Abraham passed on to his descendants and, ultimately, to all people. We can become Abraham's offspring through accepting Christ as our Savior (Galatians 3).

Did he have any clue as to how God would use his life? Did he realize that his story, his one small dot on God's eternal timeline, would be affecting and instructing millions of people centuries later? No! And we don't know the big picture of how God will use our lives and deaths - our stories - both while we're alive and after we're gone. But we, like Abraham, need to be faithful in our daily lives. We need to be seeking after God, especially if we want to leave a legacy that pleases and praises Him.

Are you recycling yourself?