How to Live Without Regret | Genesis 49 | Crossroads Daily

My question is, what would you hope someone would say about you based on the trajectory of your life? So if you were at the end of your life, what do you hope that people say about you? This is the Crossroads Daily. No experts, no perfect people, just honest conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. Hey, I'm Chuck. I'm Alex. I'm Chris. I'm Kirsten. And we are talking about the end, close to the end, of Genesis today. Jacob, talk about a story that just has a wide and long arc. This is the guy who tricks his brother. This is the guy who sees angels ascending and descending a ladder. This is the guy who reconciles with his brother. This is the guy who has a son who gets sold by his other brothers and then gets to see him again. There's such beauty in Jacob's story. His name gets changed to Israel, and obviously he's the namesake for the nation of Israel, which means someone who wrestles with God. And so we're hearing his last words in this scripture. My question is, what would you hope someone would say about you based on the trajectory of your life? So if you were at the end of your life, what do you hope that people say about you? Not that I would be in between two donkeys, which is what he said about one of his. That's right. That's right. I was like, what does that even mean? What does that mean? That's a low blow. I hope that's not what someone's saying about me. I feel like when I think about my life, I think about the word legacy a lot. A lot. My kids, probably, who are only two and nine months right now, how my best chance at legacy is what I instill in them. But then even beyond that, I think that it's about impact for me. That's what I want my legacy to be, is impact and how I can maybe even change the trajectory of someone's life, because Jesus has done that in my life.

Yeah. And that's where I want my legacy to be, is generations, whether it's through my kids or even someone else's and maybe their kids, because of the way that they've met Jesus through intersecting with my life. We've been really into Coco recently. Okay. Has anyone ever seen this Disney movie? Oh, I love it. Yes. It's such a good movie. Good plot twist. Yes. Ball my eyes out. I know. Well, Judah, my son, really loves to play the guitar. Okay. And he's two, so he only kind of can. And so he loves Coco because the little boy plays the guitar, who he thinks his name is Coco. So I'll break that news to him one day. But I mean, Coco, if you've never seen the movie, it really is all about legacy. It's about honoring people who have passed away and telling their stories. And there's one guy whose story isn't remembered. And so he's being forgotten. And yeah, it's being my feels, but I'm like, how can I, I don't care if I personally am forgotten, but I want the way that like my life reflects Jesus and what I, you know, the good news of Jesus, I want that to like, that's good. Be my downline, my legacy. That's really good. Yeah. I like the way of putting it that our impact can remain even if we don't like, I mean, I don't even know if I can say all of my great grandparents. I don't know their names. That's right. So the idea that like, I'm trying to make my name be remembered. It's like my own family's gonna remember me. Like that's, it's so humbling. I remember an old mentor of mine talks about a funeral. He was at back in the day where is this older woman who had passed and person got up and they're like, uh, she really knew how to clip some coupons. And you know, like you didn't want

to get on her bad side. Like it just, it's like, man, at the end of my life is do I, is it going to be cool saying like, you know, Chris, he loves star Wars. Like he, you know, like he was really into fantasy football or like, am I working for something that's going to last? Like, I mean, in theory in heaven, the only thing that we can do on earth that we're not going to be able to do in heaven is love people who don't know God. So like, what am I doing now? That adds to that. And my, I would love if people look at me and remember me as someone that's like, he didn't care about himself. And especially in an age where it's like, it's a lot about self care. Like you need to take care of yourself first, protect yourself. Like there is ways to take care of yourself. And also realize like my life is not my own and so I would love if I Didn't take myself super seriously in that way I was just like this body's going somewhere else like it's gonna be so it's like why I care about any of this stuff That's right. That's right I was thinking about this, you know Knowing that we were talking about this today and was like if you look at my life if you look at my checkbook if you look At how I spend my time Yeah, does my life reflect someone whose hope is in another world called heaven? What would indicate that you know, I mean, you know things came to mind me is like, you know If you if you looked at my finances and you saw me trying to garner as much as I can for the now That would belie that maybe I don't believe that there's anything other than right now I think about what you said with legacy if if I'm spending my time only on myself Then that would mean that I don't feel like there's anything to give outside of myself for you know And so I just I was just reflecting on that because I think when you look at someone in the Bible like an Israel, you know To your point Chris like yeah, most of us. Nobody's gonna remember our name a hundred years from now Yeah, that's just true for most of us. Yeah, it's been true for most of humanity here. We are talking about, you know, Jacob Thousands of years after his life, but it's not because of him. It's because of God, right? That's right. And so I think you're on to something with what you guys are saying around like hey There's a legacy to think about but it's really got to be rooted in God's story. Not my story. Yeah, I definitely see that in Jacob like His sons as he blesses them. Sure. He has like some harsh words for son for some but he's not like

Taking it upon himself to put his value in his children Which is what I mean like it was all about his faith and submission and obedience to the Lord Mm-hmm, and he kind of like did his best I am thinking with his sons and ultimately with Joseph going through the hard things he he did and It was all because that was the plan. Yeah, that was the plan to save their people Like I think Jacob if he tried to take the reins of his kids future and say like I know it's best for you instead Of what he wouldn't have let what happened happen, you know Or maybe would have been a little more aggressive with fixing it or yeah punishing his his sons, but I think if we were to fast-forward to Jesus's words of you know, you're like your Whole purpose is laying your life down laying your life down picking up your cross Every single day and and that can look different for me every day. I I think of Things I picked up for my mom with generosity. My mom did not have a lot at all. She did not have money To be giving as she did, but she always was like buying Christmas presents for families that didn't have that even though we also didn't have that but she was like we're going to go give this family Christmas presents and I was always like Growing up like this is a horrible use of your money That means less Christmas presents for me, but as I get older like what a lesson to learn even from someone that like now knows Jesus, but back then didn't it and just see how God like uses that of mine and her Story, but then also he's been kind of laying that foundation for me the whole time So I'm excited for what he does in the rest of my life What do you hope people say after you're gone like I hope they say that I was always just Looking for what God had for me and I was like picking up my cross every day I don't know what that looks like. And I don't think I know what that looks like for my kids, but It's gonna be good. Yeah, you know, so let's do a lightning round So knowing that God knows the end from the beginning of your story How does that affect how you're living right now lightning round one way that that's impacting your life right now

I think it means I can wrestle with him and that's okay Like I don't always have to be succeeding It was like you were talking about this past weekend like and I love that Jacob's name is wrestles with God It's not it's perfect with following God obeys God all the time it's like God literally was like you're my people means to wrestle with me and so like Pressing into him when I'm scared and nervous and I don't know where to go to next but like not stopping that communication with him Even when I want to pull away, that's good. I had a crap childhood and I think doing that without God I Was like this sucks. This is terrible. And now that I'm like, oh my gosh, I can go through really hard things with God I think that is what I get to look forward to is I get to live differently because I know Every hard thing just like Joseph story is gonna end in a better thing, a better version of myself. Yeah, that's good. I think similarly, mine might be, anything and everything is redeemable through Jesus. And so when I think back on the whole span of my life, I've known God for a really long time. And there were times where I pushed him away and I've been a really, really bad friend and I've kind of sucked his wife before and I've failed as a daughter and I have not shown up well as a mom. Like there's all of these things and I've seen so many of those things be redeemed and used by the Lord. And so I know that that's still possible and he's still continuing to redeem. Yeah, that's so good. What comes to mind for me is, I think it's Psalm 90. It was written by Moses and Moses says, "'Teach us to number our days

"'so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.'" And when I think about God knowing the end of the wisdom, end of the beginning of our lives, it makes me think about that. Like, man, whatever today looks like for you, it's a gift. And the greatest thing you could ask for is to gain a heart of wisdom. ♪♪♪