In November, my husband Paul and I will have lived in the Atlanta area for seventeen years. Hard to believe ~ time goes by so quickly! We love the South, especially the beautiful winding country roads, the acres and acres of rolling hills and land filled with trees and lovely homes, large and small.

On one of those country roads, one we travel quite frequently, we’ve watched a funny little man (let’s call him Mr. Silver) building a huge stone wall along the border of his property. For seventeen years, almost every time we drove by, he would be out there working, wearing a shiny silver hardhat (ergo the fictional name… Mr. Silver), working as though he had been given a royal charge to protect the fortress of a king.

Mr. Silver would finish off a large portion of the giant wall (which may have taken a year or more of his life) and I’d think to myself, “Finally! He’s done!” But the next time we’d drive by, there he would be again working on yet another section of wall.

Week after week, month after month, year after year he worked. This wall was obviously his passion ~ or perhaps I should say his obsession. Now bear in mind, this was not a perfect, custom built, million-dollar-neighborhood kind of stone wall. It was as messy and funny looking as Mr. Silver himself with his aluminum hardhat, bare chest, and bib-overalls. I’m not sure how well the wall would hold up under a big test like a tornado or flood, and it definitely would never be photographed for the cover of Home and Garden magazine. But Mr. Silver was consumed by the project and slowly, stone by stone, he was completing his masterpiece.

I’m sure he thought this stone rampart would be his legacy, long outliving him. But sadly, if that was his goal, he was wrong ~ dead wrong. A few months ago Mr. Silver passed away, and it was only a matter of weeks before the wall he had been lovingly working on for more than seventeen years of his life was demolished.  All that work ~ almost two decades of love and labor ~ gone. It kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?

As I drove past the property last week I thought to myself, “What am I building? Will the things I’m pouring my life into truly last after I’m gone?”

My husband and I are contemplating building a new home. And our beautiful daughter Sarah and her sweet fiancé Ted will be married in just a few short weeks and will begin building a life together. But what is it in a home, a marriage, or a family that will last beyond our own lives? What will live on after we’re gone? Will the things we’ve poured our lives into endure? Or, like Mr. Silver’s wall, could everything we have built be wiped out in what seems like an instant?

In some way, we’re all building something. We pour our hearts, time, money and souls into so many things. For Mr. Silver it was building a stone wall around his “kingdom.” For others it might be building a financial fortress. Maybe it’s building a business, or a career, or a home or… But the question is this, once we’re gone what will remain? Will it be something like this man’s wall that can be wiped out in a day? Or will we build something that will outlast our life on this earth?

What do you want your legacy to be? What will you leave to your children, or to those whose lives have been touched by yours? Is it the memory of a house, a job, vacations, money? Or is there something far more valuable you want to leave behind? If we want to leave a legacy of eternal value, the “wall” we’re building had better be made of something far more enduring than rock. Think about Mr. Silver. His whole life was spent working on something he thought was going to be strong, sure and lasting. And poof ~ it’s gone!

What are you building? Spend your time, your energy, your money, and your life on something that outlives you. Build a legacy of love, of faith, of truth, of Christ. The only thing in this world that will outlast this world is people. Build into those you love. Give them a legacy that will last into eternity.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)

Share your “Building Plans” with us here on the JoyBlog by clicking on the Comments link above. We’d love to hear about what you’re building! And if you know others who might enjoy this message, be sure to Share it on Facebook.