Transition Generations – Paul Nordman

The Dot

A young mentee and I have been making our way through Your Money Counts, a practical book by Howard Dayton on managing personal finances through Biblical principles. (I recommend it.) At one point, Dayton offers this eternal perspective: “Our momentary time on earth is but a dot on the timeline of eternity. Yet we have the opportunity to influence eternity by how we handle our money today.”¹ I agree with Dayton and would enlarge the context to suggest all of our words and actions reverberate long after we’ve passed on from this life. Have you seen, for instance, people raised in broken or dysfunctional homes, only later to parent a loving, supportive, and thriving family of their own? These “transition generations,” as I call them, enrich the soil of the family tree for decades or perhaps centuries to come. A dot well lived.

We sometimes doubt our impact in this life and question our purpose; we let the bigness of the universe make us feel insignificant, or we underestimate our impact here by understanding it incompletely or evaluating it prematurely. The truth of the matter is, the fruit of our actions multiplies far beyond our notice, imagination, or the limitations of our earthly timeline. Jesus said that when we speak Biblical truth to those most willing to accept it, they “produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”² We see only a mere sampling of the harvest, for it spreads far and wide and reproduces throughout generations. This is God’s plan for us, as Jesus so clearly declared, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”³ This is our assignment: to sow the word, to speak Biblical truth. The results are eternal.

Are you one who stands at the seashore and questions your significance or looks at the stars and feels small? Have you reached that season of life when you truly understand its brevity, and now regret some past priorities? If so, know this: there is still time to sow seeds in fertile hearts, to speak truth to hungry souls. So, go and sow. There is plenty of big bang left in your little dot.

Father, thank You for giving us the great honor of Kingdom impact. Lead us to the fertile grounds of people’s hearts, that we would declare Your Word in great peace and joy. Rejoice in Your harvest. In Christ we pray. Amen.

¹ Howard Dayton, Your Money Counts, (USA: Tyndale), 132.
² Mark 4:20 NIV
³ John 15:16 NIV, emphasis added

Transition Generations

I’d have to say Bob Bailey is the greatest leader I’ve ever been around. CEO at State Auto Insurance Companies for roughly half of my 35-year career there, he was visionary, principled, optimistic, engaging and kind. He also had about him the wonderful folk wisdom of one raised as a Kansas farm boy; employees loved him and could quote many of his horse-sense adages. One that still comes to mind in pivotal situations is this: “Think about how a decision will play out two, three, and four steps down the road.”

His advice seemed simple enough—EQ before EQ was a thing. “Of course! Why not?” The fact of the matter, though, is that we make all sorts of personal decisions that gratify only briefly before reaping a harvest of regret in due season. Be it the one-time fling or the one more drink—and we might as well add unharnessed anger and unbridled tongues—our indulgent choices of the moment ripple ruin through friends, family and finances, sometimes setting a rocky course for those who will travel in the footsteps we leave behind.

Yet I also know many people who are to their family what I call the “transition generation.” These men and women set out in life on a perilous path, the lane of a lineage marked with abuse, dependency, unfaithfulness or disbelief. Yet through vision, resolve and the grace of God, these brave ones changed the course for themselves, their family and offspring yet to come. They heard a Voice and followed Him to a new path of hope, often at a cost of dear friendships, as the apostle Peter notes, “Those who do not know God are surprised you do not join them in the sinful things they do. They laugh at you and say bad things against you.”¹

No matter how bumpy the road left behind by our forebears, we can chart a new course for our family; and if we’ve veered off highways paved smooth by our predecessors, we can make our way back by God’s mercy and grace. I can think of no greater leadership than to bless our family—to be a milepost of hope—two, three, four and more steps down the road.

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. (Isaiah 35:8a)

Father, this life can be so tough and so difficult to navigate. Lead me and lead my family in courage down your paths of good and right; bless us, so we may bless those who follow in our steps. Lead us in Christ, for He himself is “the way.”² In His name and by the power of your Spirit, I pray. Amen.

Christ in me is hope.

¹ 1 Peter 4:4 (NLV)
² John 14:6

[Click here to read today’s Scripture, 1 Peter 4:1-6.]