day no. 15,261: providing an inheritance in both directions

"Paul says, that our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Cor. 15:58). What we do here matters. The work we do matters. This is not limited to ethical good works; it includes cultural good works. In music, what we sing matters. The way we sing it matters. What we compose matters. In the resurrection, we will be given a new song, but this does not mean that the old songs will be taken away. Too often, evangelical Christians throw up their cultural achievements like makeshift scaffolding. We think, 'It’s all gonna burn, man,' and so what we do here does not matter. But as Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 3, some of it is going to burn, but other aspects of what we do in ministry will be tested and purified. Some of our hymns will be with us in the resurrection. Rather than trying to guess which ones, we need to turn our attention to all of them, with an educated desire for all of them to glorify the Lamb as worthy, 'the Lamb that was slain.' We should sing as though we wanted all of them to make the cut." - Douglas Wilson, Church Music and the Other Kinds

"A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." - Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay (T.B. Macaulay)

What we do matters now and will matter later. Some of what we do will survive the refining fire of Christ's judgment. The culture we are creating is not just for our immediate benefit, it is for the saints who will follow in our train and it is for the saints who have already gone on ahead of us. Too often, we limit our assiduity, if we employ it at all, to those who will follow in our footsteps. And well enough all things considered: legacy-building and serving your great, great grandchildren through your present obedience should be a front-burner kind of fire.

But if the cultural mandate and the great commission are any indication, we are helping to build something which will be inherited by all God's saints: present, future and past. The earth that the meek will inherit has been, in part, handed to us to steward and to improve until that Day when Christ refines our collective efforts and hands back to us all the fruits of our grace empowered, faith-filled efforts. We are not just handing a legacy down to our descendants, but building one up for our ancestors as well. May we make them all proud by bringing more of it under the dominion of Jesus.

So let's build a culture that conquers the world in the hopes of reaping the fruit of the world we helped conquer for God's glory, the good of our neighbor and our personal growth.

"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." - Edmund Burke