Mums The Word?

It’s All About Motivation

Lots of people live to leave a legacy.

We act as though once we die, we’re going to care what people think of us.

Humanity is fickle and look what culture did to some of our great American hero’s a few years ago by overturning statues and labeling them racists.

The victims were dead and had no recourse.

Legacies are flimsy and need true humility to last the test of time.

I read this sign in a coffee shop in Washington recently. It says “A society grows great when old men plant tree’s whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

It struck me, “Dang, that’s a powerful and freeing way to live.”

A few years ago I was hired to produce a video about Ehrman Guistina. He was a lumber baron in Oregon.

He came up with the idea of replanting forests, as a business, long before government rules forced such action.

He knew the forests his company planted would someday bring forth value, but he would never live to see it.

He also created an endowment at the U of O that gave full scholarships to Oregon’s best students to keep them living and working in the state.

His motivation was planting seed’s in the forest and in people that he would never personally see come to fruition.

I’ve met a lot of people in my life. As a former television news journalist you quickly see people’s true motivation for what they do.

It slips out in words and deeds.

You learn to spot those who are truly selfless and those whose underlying motivation is personal credit with a dash of score keeping.

It is easy to slip into the pattern of selfishness.

Age is one cure, you get to the point where you just don’t care anymore what people think.

But even age isn’t a guarantee you will move past the land of self gratification.

God tells us in his word that what you take credit for on earth will evaporate from your eternal resume.

Think about that….everything you take credit for on earth won’t count in the next life.

Sobering isn’t it.

Guess it’s time to plant some more tree’s……and not tell anyone.