Living Life by Design

In Krakow during World War II, the Nazi Germans force local Polish Jews into overcrowded ghettos. Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party from Czechoslovakia, acquires a factory to produce enamelware. His workers were all Jews. Schindler is careful to maintain his “favored” relationship and friendship with the SS, mostly through bribes. 

As the war effort for Germany goes bad, he is ordered to surrender  his workers to the SS so they can be transferred to Auschwitz. Schindler and his administrator,  Itzhak Stern create “Schindler’s List” – a list of 850 people to be transferred to his new munitions plant in Brunnlitz.

Schindler spends his entire fortune trying to save as many Jews as he can from the Nazi death camps. He runs out of money in 1945, just as the Germans surrender. He survived the war but died penniless. His lifelong lament was that he wasn’t able to save more people. Oskar Schindler opened his heart to others. He showed his love for God by how he treated his brothers. While he may have started with selfish intentions, he allowed God to enlighten his heart and mind and see the true meaning of discipleship.

Schindler left behind a legacy of life.

In the case of the apostle Paul, we don’t exactly if he had a lifelong lament or know what his last words were. However, we do have his last recorded words. As he comes to the end of his letter he writes, ‘The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’ (2 Timothy 4:7). We see his passion for Jesus Christ and his word. His whole life has been about telling others the good news of Jesus. His last words urge Timothy to do the same. 

Paul left behind a legacy of life.

Two very different men with two completely different paths, yet both were able to leave behind a legacy of life.

What will your legacy be?