Leave Things Better Than You Found Them
He always sought to leave things better than he found them for the next preacher, and the church better for his having been there.
"Leave Things Better"
Play the original Excel Still More episode here without leaving the article.
The principle
He always sought to leave things better than he found them for the next preacher, and the church better for his having been there. In my unashamedly biased judgment, I believe he did just that leave things better.
Okay, so straight up from my perspective, as someone who is always on the hunt for three-word phrases that stick, I knew instantly that I wanted to share some of these ideas with you.
The deeper lesson
Certainly we can talk about death, as was the impetus of the post that I read about earlier. 28 years ago, his father left this earth. He was finished influencing people here, and it was being reflected upon that he sought to leave it better than he found it.
And when you talk about exiting a situation and it being better for you having been a part of it, to me, that issue's a challenge right away.
What it changes
Naturally, reading that post and being a preacher, I think about local work and the places where I've worked before. I know I shouldn't look back, but there was definitely a time or two where when it came to the leaving, things got kind of bad.
And maybe I need to admit that the way I went about handling that took a lot of the good that we had done and maybe didn't leave it better like I'd intended all along.
Live it today
But it's about more than marriage, it's about my children too, and it's about my friends and my fellow Christians who I would be leaving but would see again. It's also about the unsaved in my life, who I would be leaving and hope somehow to get to see again.
Look, I don't know if your life will end today or years from now, but when it does, by the grace of God, by the light of Jesus, and by love for others, start now and stay consistent so that you and I can leave things better.
Take the idea with you.
- 01Where do I see the problem or opportunity described in “Leave Things Better Than You Found Them” in my own life?
- 02What Scripture or spiritual principle in this study most needs my attention?
- 03What one specific change can I make this week to put this teaching into practice?
Prefer listening?
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