Spiritual Footprint

I toured a manufacturing plant this week in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  While touring the facility, one thing that the folks repeatedly mentioned was how little their manufacturing process impacted the environment.  He called it their “environmental footprint”.  In other words, they were doing all they could to leave a positive impact on the environment.

When I flew home on Friday, I was informed that a friend of mine had passed suddenly.  I attended his funeral yesterday, and I thought back to the term “environmental footprint”.

God didn’t make us with a soul, God made us a soul.  C.S. Lewis states “That we are a soul, and we inhabit a body”.   In other words (good or bad) we begin to leave a “spiritual footprint” on those around us from the time we are born until the time we die.  It is up to us on what that impact looks like, and we are responsible for the “footprint” we leave.

In John 13:8, Jesus speaks to His disciples in the same manner.  He simply states that as followers of Jesus Christ, we will be known by our love for one another.  How we live and how we treat each other will impact those around us.

At my friend’s funeral, people spoke of the affect that he had on their lives.  People didn’t talk about his job or hobbies.  They never mentioned how much money he left behind.  The only thing that mattered was his “spiritual footprint”.  Did he know and love Jesus?  Did he love others?  That was the only thing people said about him, and to be honest, that was really the only thing that mattered.

Today, take a good hard look at your life.  What kind of “spiritual footprint” are you leaving behind?  Is the life you are living going to matter to others when you are gone?  Is the life you are living in tune with what is really important eternally?