My First 50

It’s hard for me to believe that in just a few weeks I will be 50 years old. I remember in the 80’s saying that when the year 2000 came around, I would be 35, and how old that seemed. Now it is 2014 – I guess I really didn’t think past age 35.

At 50 now I am looking back and looking forward. What have I accomplished, is anything that I have done lasting, will anyone remember me 50 years from now. And I’ve come to the conclusion that what matters is not me. What matters is that I pass on the legacy, the gift that I’ve been given by those that who lived before, to the generations to come.

In the last few months I’ve been working on Ancestry.com. After watching the show “Who do you think you are”, I was sure that we must be related to royalty, good leaders, maybe even Elvis. The web site is great in detailing births, deaths, marriages, children and other data gathered from government records, military records and some details that folks remember that may not have been recorded. But the most important things are missing from this list of records. Exactly “who” were our ancestors and what have they passed on to us?

I’ve been thinking a lot about legacy since dad’s death last year. I’ve been thinking about my place in the world and how I even got here in the first place. About how I got through school, through college and different jobs, why marriage and children have been so important, why I value family and friends and community, and how and why God has become number one in my life. None of this happens by accident. Generations of people since the beginning of time had to come together to the point where I was even put on this earth.