I am provoked by a question. It nudges me in the middle of the night and interrupts my conversations in the middle of the day. I am poked, prodded and provoked by a question. The query agitates and aggravates the serenity of my sensibilities; longing and laboring for an answer. I don’t fear the question, but am grieved by the reality of what the answer may be. I am troubled even as I type it. It is the worst type of fear. The type of fear that will not allow you to walk away from it despite how unwilling you are to confront it. I am provoked by a question…and the question is this:
When we pass from this life to the next, what will be the legacy of our people? What will they say of us when we are no longer here? Will they say that we were loving and kind or violent and depraved? Will they speak of our disposition with delight or reflect on our demeanor with disdain? How will our people be remembered? By choosing to engage in our day to day behaviors, are we compromising our collective character as the children of those who produced the pyramids? Do our practices distance us from our heritage as the descendants of medicine makers & mathematicians; a heritage of intellectuals, inventors & innovators? With each passing day, do we ruin the reputation of royalty we come from; leaving that legacy in the name of present-day popularity? When we pass from this life to the next, what will be the legacy of our people?
At the core and crux of this inquiry is a deeper interrogative. Not only do I (as I believe all who are passionate about their people ought) wrestle with the question of how we will be remembered, I (we?) must also consider what we do to reinforce that remembering? Meaningfulness is often mistaken as an absolutely positive thing. “Meaning” has the ability to affect both negatively or positively. That being the case, what mark will we have left on the spaces we’ve occupied? Have we allowed our mistakes to build us toward our highest destiny or block us from it? Do we grow and mature in the wake of our worst behaviors or do we justify our continued malpractice by citing the construct we live under? Has the legacy of people of African descent been tainted or will we yet flourish because of our faithfulness to consider what we can become based on the efforts of our ancestors? What are we doing and do we know why we are doing it?”
In this age of fleeting fame and passing popularity, have we become so romanced with the “now” that we have not completely considered what we position ourselves to yet become. Every decision, every endeavor, every choice we make further cements us into the place history will one day hold us in. In a world that is already difficult, laden with cards stacked against & branded as ‘opportunity’, will our children (and their children after them) have to undo tomorrow what we were unwilling to stop doing today?
“Living” consists of more than just oxygenation. Breathing is valuable ( I have no plans on ceasing to in the near future), but to actually “live” is less about respiration and more about reason. For a thing, dare I say for a people, to actually “live” requires a clear understanding of purpose and then a commitment to operate in that intendment intentionally. We truly begin to live when we know our purpose and live in that purpose on purpose.
As a Christian, I believe that purpose to be directly connected to pleasing God through a personal choice to “live” (there’s that word again) out the life model represented by Jesus Christ. But, the seriousness of the life I’ve been given prompts me to peer beyond the simplicity on the surface of how I understand my purpose. How does the Lord desire for my life (and the lives of those whom I am connected to) to look as I attempt to live for Jesus. Does a Jesus who desires liberation for captives want me to live a life where I’m held captive to commodities, imprisoned by impoverishment or mired in mediocrity? Shouldn’t my love for my neighbor prompt me to want them to live in the fullness of what their life can be? Yes, I choose to live my life as a Christian but what do the details of that decision look like day after day? When one understands this, when one is able to comprehend the particularities of their purpose, it is only then that one can truly live.
If that is the case, then the question that has scared me into reluctant reflection has left me with a more diacritic dilemma. I am petrified as I ponder the possibilities of what the answer might be. It is a question that we may not know the answer to. Worse than that might be the truth that we know the answer & worst of all would be knowing the answer, knowing the implications of that answer and doing nothing to adjust our activity. My new nemesis is this: With all that we, are presently (and with the issue of our legacy hanging in the balance)…What Are We (as a people) Living For?
