Leaving an Inheritance

Welcome to Keep the Ground. Keep the Ground is based on Genesis 2:15 where Adam is instructed to work the ground and keep it. It will look at our responsibilities to the earth and what can be done to preserve it.

Over the past few months, we have been looking at what it means to care for the earth and how we might go about doing so. In this week’s letter, we will continue to explore this concept, but also looking at the why this all matters.

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.” - Proverbs 13:22

I know I am young as I haven’t yet hit thirty, but still thoughts about legacy and what I want to leave behind when I leave this earth fill my mind. Regardless of anything else that I can leave behind, I want my children and my grandchildren to know that I loved the Lord Jesus Christ and I want them to all know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. This is the most important thing and if I can pass this on to them, then by spiritual accounts I have left an incredible inheritance since there is nothing worth more than eternal life that can only come through a belief in Jesus.

Obviously, I want to leave more behind than just this, but I know it will be enough if this is all I leave behind. Many people know their grandparents, few know their great grandparents, and a very few know their great great grandparents. Past this, most people are forgotten about with only a few being memorialized in the pages of our history books. We never want to think about such things because we don’t like recognizing that everything we know now will be burned up like wood hay and stubble and only that which is eternal will remain.

I want to leave behind not only this knowledge of Jesus, but I would also like to be able to care for my children and my grandchildren even when I am gone and do so financially. Part of doing this involves properly managing the assets that I have so that there will be something to give, but there is also the fact that historically speaking, it typically only takes 3 generations for the wealth of one generation to be destroyed. In order to keep this from happening, my family needs to know more than just that there is money available, but they also need to know how to steward it so that they can pass it down to the next generation and the one after that.

This can only happen when you have a firm financial plan and a legacy plan as well that helps to guide your descendants with all of the wisdom and knowledge that you would like to impart.

An example of doing this poorly is the Vanderbilts. At one point they had amassed one of the largest fortunes ever, and yet their money had dwindled in less than 100 years. This was because the people who had worked hard to make the money didn’t have systems in place to pass down the knowledge and values instead allowing the grandchildren to live lives of luxury which ultimately was what destroyed them. One of the remaining reminders of the fall of the Vanderbilts is the opulent mansions they build to live in which are no longer owned by the Vanderbilts and in many cases have been torn down.

This letter is not one for financial advice and I don’t claim to be doing that. Instead, I want to look at other ways that we can leave an inheritance regarding nature and how we steward it.

The default mindset is towards exploitation and greed saying that whatever can be used now should be used now for our own benefits. If instead we realize that we want to leave an inheritance to our children and our children’s children, we need to be cognizant of how we are treating the environment around us.

If we look at the world around us, we can see many examples of destruction that are happening every day. These range from deforestation to pollution of the land, water, and air and even to the extinction of species of plants and animals. If this is the trajectory, then we can only hope that there will be something left for our grandchildren. However, hope is not a strategy and not something that brings about any real results.

For instance, Cornelius Vanderbilt might have hoped that the fortune that he had amassed would survive for many generations and be able to help his family with what he was leaving behind. Without a strategy though for how to handle this money and ensure that his values were passed on along with his money, the family fortune quickly evaporated.

“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”

This quote helps to sum things up. When old men plant trees whose shade they will not enjoy, it shows that there is a plan for caring for the environment and for thinking long term.

From a purely selfish perspective, it doesn’t make any sense to plant a tree if you are not going to be able to enjoy it. However, if you are thinking long term, a tree is something that can easily last for decades if not longer and will bring benefits to future generations.

When thinking about the environment, we often have to think about things long term. Fruit and nut trees often take 5 or more years to start producing fruit, and then more to get to where they are fully mature with maximum productivity. Because these trees take so long to produce and then can produce for years after this, God specifically calls for the protection of these trees when armies go off to war.

“When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you?” - Deuteronomy 20:19

God clearly understands the long time that it takes for these trees to produce and recognizes also that many years of growth could be destroyed in a matter a minutes with a sharp axe. He wants us to think about things from a longer perspective instead of just looking at things from the present.

While it might seem silly to think of part of the legacy that you leave as a garden bed or a small pot of kitchen herbs, this can be just the right place to start. If you have kids, you can help to teach them about how to grow their own food and how God provides richly for us from the earth. This might be something as simple as growing a single basil plant in the kitchen, but it can be something that can spark conversation and get people in the right mindset to continue working to improve the world.

What might start as a basil plant can quickly move into bigger topics of discussion and education teaching about how we should not litter or waste. You can even plant a tree if you have the space and teach your children to do the same. If you want to ensure that your children continue to improve the world, you can set aside instruction in your estate planning instructing how to care for the environment.

This last one is more difficult and can involve lawyers and all of the other things that are involved with formal estate planning, but these lessons can still be passed on without the official legal documents.

When it comes to healing the land and protecting the environment, it isn’t something that we can just do once and then be happy with making a small impact, but rather it is something that takes time and effort and thinking long term. We need to learn how to plant trees and teach our children to do the same.

Hopefully by now, you are beginning to see the importance of planning to leave a legacy as well as how we should think long term when it comes to care for the environment and our finances.

This week, think about ways that you can leave a legacy and realize that they don’t have to be monetary. Then take action and do something that will help generations in the future. Plant a tree, pick up some roadside trash, or even be cognizant of how much electricity you are using and see if there are places you can reduce this.

If you have children think of ways that you can build your legacy through them. Most important is their relationship with Jesus, and after that is everything else. This doesn’t mean that you can’t pass on any wisdom or pieces of legacy until they know Jesus, but the wisdom and knowledge that you have gained should continually be discussed and taught.

Let me know down in the comments if this helped your understanding of how you can build a legacy that not only benefits your children, but can also benefit the environment itself.

Thank you for joining Keep the Ground.

May your labor be fruitful, and your land well-kept.

— Christopher