Sowing, reaping and inheritance

Most of us are familiar with the idea of sowing and reaping. You reap what you sow. You get out of something, what you put in. But inheritance is different. When you inherit something you get what you didn’t earn. With inheritance, something comes to you because of the work of another.

Often, in our generation today we are consumed with ourselves. We are concerned with what we can achieve now or in the future – but not the distant future – the near future, our lifetime. We don’t mind sowing, if we get to do the reaping. This is the consumerism of our generation. However, I believe we need to think beyond ourselves. We need to think in terms of legacy and inheritance.

Now, I find that an altogether more exciting prospect. To think I could be involved in something bigger than me, that will outlast my lifetime. Or that will at the least, outlast my involvement in the project. I love the idea that I can build a foundation upon which others will continue to build. That someone other than just me, will profit from my work. I love the idea that I can work hard and enable others to stand on my shoulders and achieve greater things. 

I believe we were all created to live that way. To dream big and to let others carry on the dreams. To let God do things in and through our lives which outlast us. And I believe that when we do that we create unstoppable momentum. Because it just gets bigger and bigger. Even Jesus said, in John 14:12, that we will do even greater things than he did. Because he wants us to stand on his shoulders, and reach higher, because we take his inheritance and use that as our foundation. Last year’s ceiling, becomes this year’s floor.

And as I look back over the last few years of laying the foundation of Mercy Ships Medical Capacity Building Program, this week marks the start of a new stage on our journey. Different people will be standing on my shoulders and launching out on new initiatives. Daunting and exciting at the same time. One of these new initiatives is an ambitious goal to teach the World Health Organisation (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) to all the regional hospitals in Madagscar. I leave today to go with the team to the first hospital in Fenerive Est.  I will help them with the first one, then they will stand on my shoulders and reach higher and take what I started and make it better. I will try and share reports from them (on a tab on this blog), week by week as they empower others to make surgery safer in Madagascar. The WHO SSC has the potential to reduce deaths and infections after surgery by almost 50%. Now that is something worth aiming for. An inheritance that brings hope and healing, that transforms individuals and serves nations one at a time. A dream that is bigger than us and that will far outlast our lifetime.