Legacy. It’s the thing we leave behind after all our days have been spent here on earth. Intentionally or unintentionally, legacy is what will remain long after we are gone. We get only this one chance to leave an eternal footprint. Legacy.
I’ve waited a little while to write this post, though it’s been bouncing around in my head for a couple of months. I listened to a TED Talk this summer by Susan Klebold. If that name doesn’t ring a bell for you, she is the mother of Dylan Klebold – one of the two Columbine shooters – who took part in the murder of 13 people on April 20, 1999. [You can listen to her talk in its entirety here.] She says something in her talk that shook me to the core. She says “It has taken me years to try and accept my son’s legacy.” Wow…who can imagine the legacy of having a son who’s life ended so publicly, violently and tragically? Who can imagine what it has been like for her to live out her life in the nearly 2 decades since that day? She has been living in the wake of something that will be part of history for all time. I don’t know if she used that word “legacy” with deep intention or if it just seemed the right word for what she was trying to say in the moment but I’m a wordsmith and it got me thinking.
As you probably know by now, my son is in prison and, without supernatural intervention, he will live the remainder of his days with a “legacy” given him by our society. Whether earned or not, this is his reality. But is this his true legacy? Does society and culture get to define that for him and for us? As I listened to Sue Klebold tell her story, I wept over the idea that something so eternal could also be so fragile. I wept for my son and all that he was born to be. It was in that moment of weeping that I heard the Lord’s voice say “Dear girl, could any gift I give be so easily broken by the world? His legacy remains unbroken.” It was a revelational moment. Every wish, every dream, every desire I’ve ever had for my son may have only been just that – a wish. But the legacy that God gifted to him before time and space even existed, remains unbroken. All that God has for him is still being held safe and secure until that moment when he will finally be able to step into it and live it out boldly knowing it was always his.
Dear one, I don’t know where you are today or what you are walking through. I don’t know what title the world has tried to give you or what moniker they have plastered on your life. This world can be so unforgiving – a place filled with cruelty and judgment. But know this – your legacy remains unbroken. Whether you have found the boldness to walk it out or if you are still waiting and gathering courage, your legacy is safe and sound in the hands of the Lord until you find the strength to take that first, brave step. It may not look the way you wished or dreamed but it’s your true legacy – the one planned for you from the beginning of time.
Mike and I certainly didn’t see this legacy coming. I’m not sure that anything we might have done could have prepared us for the road we are only just beginning to walk. This is the road He prepared for us when we were still wandering around in the wilderness trying to find ourselves. THIS legacy – this will stand long after our wishes and dreams have been forgotten. It’s not the safe or the easy road, but no one ever changed the world walking those streets. We will join hands with our son and live out this gift of legacy taking every single step knowing that these are the steps God always planned for us. This will be our Legacy Unbroken.
For more information on what’s being done to change the face of our (in)justice system, please go to www.innocenceproject.org or www.guiltypleaproblem.org.
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