Solomon, one of the wisest men in the world, wrote, “This, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 5:16, NLT).
You can read that verse two different ways. Somebody comes into the world, but when they leave the world, they are no better off. They have not learned or grown. They have not lived a life for the benefit of others.
Paul wrote about this kind of person to Timothy. “Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5, ESV). That’s a person who leaves this world no better off than when they came into it.
A second way you can look at this is when you die, you’ve not left the world a better place. Your life has not been meaningful in a significant way to change where you serve or work. Your family, friends, community and church are not worse off without you. None of us wants to live either one of these types of lives, so what’s the solution? What do we need to do to avoid having this kind of terrible epitaph on our lives?
When it comes to leaving an impact on the world, nothing changes lives more than genuine generosity. Giving is at the core of the gospel. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
A radically giving love is at the core of God’s actions. We rejected God, and he still sacrificed himself to make a way for us to know his love. If we’ve been touched by that love, we should want more than anything to introduce others to that love and mercy. I want to let other people know about that kind of hope. I want to live larger than my own little story.