What’s Your Legacy?

This is all that is left standing of an old plantation house in South Carolina.

On a recent trip to Hilton Head, my family and I had the opportunity to tour site of an old cotton plantation. It was originally 1,000 acres. But, this and the slave quarters are all that remain. The house was built in the 1790’s by Captain Jack Stoney and according to legend, was lost in a poker game to William Baynard in1840. It’s referred to as the Stoney-Baynard ruins.

Baynard was a renowned Sea Island cotton grower and he and his wife moved to the mansion and raised four children there. In 1861, Union forces invaded. It was used as Union headquarters until it was burned.

It’s a sad place to visit. To me, it had a negative feel to it. Perhaps it’s because it represents a dark time in American history, a time when we turned on each other. It was a time when many believed it was okay to own another human being. It was a time when those who were slaves believed their situation would never change. They believed they would always be property. Can you imagine that kind of hopelessness?

The Civil War changed all of that. The ruins left standing are not only a reminder of a dark past, but a reminder that nothing ever stays the same. As human beings, we are always trying to make monuments to ourselves and bigger and grander homes and buildings that we believe will last forever. In 1909, not even fifty years after this plantation was burned, we even began building a ship that was dubbed, “unsinkable.” It was called the Titanic. We all know how that turned out.

Humanity has a tendency to believe that we are permanent residents here. We like to believe that bigger is better. Some of us hope that our situations never change, while others pray daily that it will.

Visiting these ruins was a reminder that nothing here on this earth is permanent. We are travelers just passing through and life can turn on a dime. What we leave behind is entirely up to us. Yes, we can make it our life’s work to leave beautiful buildings and monuments to our greatness. Those can easily be toppled by any number of elements from fires to tornadoes and earthquakes.

We also have the choice to leave a legacy of love that requires no money whatsoever. If we were to make it our life’s work to love our families and then our neighbors and co-workers and spread out from there, I don’t think there would be ruins in 150 years. If we were to love God and seek Jesus with our lives and share that with the people around us, what would the earth look like in 150 years?

We won’t personally be here to see it, but I’ll bet there wouldn’t be ruins to visit either. What will your legacy be? How will you be remembered? It’s entirely up to you.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂