PEACE IN MY TIME—BUT WHAT ABOUT TOMORROW?

Legacy Arc Episode 4

King Hezekiah was one of Judah’s most faithful kings. He reopened the temple, restored worship, confronted idolatry, and trusted God when the Assyrian Empire threatened Jerusalem.

Yet near the end of his life, Hezekiah heard that Judah’s treasures—and some of his own descendants—would one day be carried into Babylon. His response leaves us with a sobering question:

“Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?”

Is it enough for life to remain peaceful while we are here, or are we preparing people for the world they will face after we are gone?

In this special extended episode of the Legacy Arc, Matt explores both the faithfulness and the blind spots of Hezekiah’s life. Hezekiah repaired what he inherited, carried his fears into God’s presence, and received fifteen additional years of life. But what did he do with that additional time?

Along the way, we pause at two important “scenic viewpoints.”

The first is Matt’s Psalm 90 Yardstick of Life. On a 40-inch yardstick representing an 80-year life, every inch represents two years. Hezekiah’s additional fifteen years would equal seven and a half inches. The illustration makes the question strikingly personal: What are we doing with the portion of the yardstick still entrusted to us?

The second viewpoint takes us to Europe in 1938. Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich speaking of “peace for our time,” while Winston Churchill warned that temporary relief had not removed the danger. Their story illustrates the difference between experiencing peace today and preparing wisely for tomorrow.

The episode also considers Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, the danger of turning God’s blessings into a personal showcase, and the responsibility to place faith, wisdom, truth, and courage into the people who will remain after us.

Matt concludes with personal reflections prompted by the death of an old friend, the startling speed with which children and grandchildren grow, and three common lies about time:

• The young say, “There is plenty of time.”
• The middle-aged say, “I am too busy.”
• Older people say, “It is too late.”

None of those statements has to determine the direction of our lives.

Peace in our time may be a gift. Preparing people for their time is a legacy.

SCRIPTURES REFERENCED

• 2 Kings 18–20
• 2 Chronicles 29–32
• Isaiah 38–39
• Psalm 90:10–12
• Psalm 71:15–18
• Psalm 92:12–14
• Ecclesiastes 3:1–11

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. What have I inherited that God may be asking me to repair rather than merely complain about?
2. When pressure comes, what do the people watching me learn from the way I carry fear?
3. Have God’s blessings become a testimony through my life, or primarily a showcase of what I possess and have accomplished?
4. Am I using the time God has given me only to enjoy present peace, or am I intentionally preparing someone for tomorrow?
5. Who is already near me who may need my encouragement, experience, honesty, wisdom, or trust?

We cannot control tomorrow, but we can be faithful today. May those who follow us inherit more than our possessions. May they inherit faith, wisdom, courage, truth, and a living knowledge of God.

The Kingdom Corner Podcast

Kingdom Builders: Forming Character in an Age of Confusion

When Love Becomes Action—Transcendence Part Two

What happens when the values we believe in begin to shape the choices we make—even when those choices cost us something?

In this Kingdom Corner Reading Room episode, Matthew Geib finishes Chapter 12, “When You’re Small, You’re Bigger,” from Dr. Henry Cloud’s Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality.

We conclude our exploration of transcendence, the sixth quality of integrated character: recognizing that life reaches beyond our immediate interests and making the adjustments needed to serve something greater.

The reading and closing reflections explore three connected themes:

• Awareness: recognizing a greater good and responding to it.
• Self-denial and adjustment: expressing love through choices that involve time, effort, comfort, or convenience.
• Making shifts: growing in trust, communication, cooperation, and willingness to receive help.

Through Cloud’s examples of leadership and service, alongside personal reflections on friendship, family caregiving, and Christian community, we consider how our everyday actions reveal what we truly value.

Self-denial does not mean losing our worth or ignoring legitimate needs. It calls for wisdom as we give ourselves to what genuinely serves others.

Questions for reflection:

1. What have I become aware of that I now need to act on?
2. What do my choices show that I value—and what am I willing to surrender to live that value faithfully?
3. Where do I need to adjust so that the people around me can grow and contribute too?

Key Scripture passages:

Psalm 34:5; James 2:17; Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 4:15–16.

Book discussed:

Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, by Dr. Henry Cloud.

Chapter 12: “When You’re Small, You’re Bigger”—concluding sections on transcendence.

Historical clarification:

The nationwide recall discussed in the 1982 Tylenol example concerned Tylenol capsules, rather than every form of Tylenol.

As we finish this chapter, choose one adjustment to put into practice. Love takes shape in dependable actions.

The Kingdom Corner Reading Room | Matt Geib

Reading: Henry Cloud’s Integrity, Chapter 11; character dimension five, Oriented Toward Increase.

What happens when the desire to grow gets buried beneath criticism, disappointment, or fear? In this Reading Room episode, Matt explores how our inner character finds expression in everyday life—and how encouragement can help gifts and abilities flourish. Drawing from Henry Cloud’s Integrity and the story of friends who developed a coffee-roasting hobby into a coffee shop, he considers the difference between a thoughtful step beyond our comfort zone and an unprepared gamble. Growth invites us to prepare, seek support, and give what is developing within us room to become visible.

• Inner character shapes outward choices, relationships, and creative work.
• Criticism and repeated disappointment can silence the desire to try; encouragement helps nurture it.
• A healthy desire for more serves meaningful relationships, gifts, and purpose.
• Wise risks build on skills, experience, research, and support.
• Small steps can develop the capacity to take larger steps and handle setbacks.
• Our daily habits can give visible expression to our convictions.

00:21 — Welcome and introduction to Integrity

02:09 — The invisible world of character and its visible expression

03:57 — Buried, hurt, or stifled hunger for growth

09:21 — Internal criticism, fear, and the need for encouragement

10:37 — Disappointment, hopelessness, and detachment

14:48 — Healthy and unhealthy hunger for more

18:07 — Gambling versus thoughtful risk

19:41 — The Lamp Post coffee shop: preparation before stepping out

22:08 — From a popcorn popper to a larger expression of growing ability

25:23 — Relational risks, support, and readiness

28:18 — Growth beyond the comfort zone

29:14 — Questions for reflection

33:50 — One small, thoughtful step this week

34:53 — Closing announcements

1. If growth begins in the invisible world of character, what is developing within me, and where is it beginning to show in my life? Consider patience, honesty, courage, kindness, and new abilities.
2. What do I care about deeply enough to invest time, effort, and heart in helping it grow?
3. What is the difference between a wise step beyond my comfort zone and a risk I am unprepared to take? What preparation, counsel, or support would help?
4. When a step brings disappointment, can I learn from it without letting it define my worth or close down my future? Who can help me regain perspective?
5. Does my life today give evidence of what I believe? Where do my habits need to catch up with my convictions?
6. What is one small, thoughtful step I can take this week to give expression to what is growing in my heart?

The Kingdom Corner | Reading Room

Who in your life encourages you, challenges you, and helps you become more than you are today?

In this Reading Room episode, we continue exploring Chapter 11 of Dr. Henry Cloud’s Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality. We consider the relationships, structures, and deliberate investments that help growth become a way of life.

Through personal reflections on mentorship, giving books to the younger generation, and learning from someone decades younger, Matt explores what it means to remain curious, vulnerable, and teachable—even as we gain experience.

The episode opens with a clarification of “Danger, Will Robinson!” and the warning behind it: rest and reflection can renew us, while withdrawing from people and opportunities can hinder our growth.

In this episode:

• Why growth needs both encouragement and direction.
• How our calendars and spending reveal our priorities.
• Making time for growth instead of waiting until we have time.
• Welcoming honest feedback and guidance from mentors.
• Receiving wisdom from people of different generations.
• Sharing what we have learned while continuing to grow ourselves.

Questions to carry into your week:

• Who helps me grow, and am I willing to receive their input?
• Am I allowing what I learn to change how I live?
• What time will I set aside this week for growth?
• Who could benefit from something I have already learned?

A thought to take with you:

One truth lived out can be more powerful than pages of notes. Choose one principle, put it into practice, and invite someone to help you follow through.

Reading: Dr. Henry Cloud’s Integrity, Chapter 11, “This Is Good, Getting Better All the Time”—continuing our study of the fifth dimension of character: being oriented toward increase.

Coming Tuesday: The Legacy series concludes with Jesus and His disciples, exploring how walking with Jesus shapes the legacy we leave.

Keep seeking. Keep growing. Keep living the Kingdom culture, one day at a time.

Listen to The Kingdom Corner

“Let me clarify something before we close: a good mentor may challenge us and tell us truths that are uncomfortable to hear. But being teachable doesn’t mean we have to accept abuse or humiliation. We can welcome honest correction and still have healthy boundaries.”

What if the greatest thing you leave behind is not something you built—but someone you prepared?

In this concluding episode of the Legacy Arc, Matt looks at Jesus and the disciples. Jesus chose ordinary, unfinished people. He invited them to be with Him, allowed them to carry real responsibility, corrected them without discarding them, and showed them that greatness in God’s Kingdom is expressed through humble service.

Jesus did more than leave His disciples with memories and instructions. He prepared them to carry His message forward through the power of the Holy Spirit. After His resurrection, these once-frightened and imperfect disciples became witnesses whose lives helped carry the gospel across cultures and into future generations.

The episode also returns to one of Matt’s favorite themes: God’s corporate temple. Jesus did not merely build something for people—He builds people together as living stones into a dwelling place for God.

The Legacy Arc began by asking what our lives will leave behind. It concludes with Jesus showing us that a lasting legacy is formed through relationships, faithful investment, restoration, service, and preparing others to follow Him.

• Mark 3:14
• Luke 9–10
• John 13
• John 14–15
• John 21
• Matthew 28:18–20
• Acts 2
• Acts 4:13
• 2 Timothy 2:2
• Ephesians 2:19–22
• Ephesians 4:15–16
• 1 Peter 2:5

1. Who helped form the person you have become, and what did their faith teach you?
2. Who within your present circle of influence could benefit from your patient attention?
3. Where might you give someone meaningful responsibility and help them learn from the experience?
4. How do you respond when another person fails? Does your response help move them toward truth and restoration?
5. What are you contributing to the shared life of God’s people?

Legacy is not only what remains after we are gone. It is the wake our lives are creating in people today.

The Kingdom Corner Podcast

Hosted by Matt Geib

www.kingdom-corner.com

A few clarifications from today’s episode:

• The saying “The glory of God is man fully alive” is commonly attributed to Irenaeus, rather than Ignatius.
• The familiar four stages of learning are unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence. My bookcase wording differs from that sequence.
• My description of the Judds’ success happening within a month was an impression of how quickly their rise seemed to happen, rather than a verified timeline.
• When discussing how hurt can hinder growth, my intended point was that painful experiences can make us hesitant to try again. People do not choose or deserve the harm done to them.

Thank you for allowing me to keep learning alongside you.

____________________________________________

Can we enjoy where we are while remaining hungry to grow?

In this episode of The Kingdom Corner Reading Room, we conclude character dimension five—being oriented toward increase—in Henry Cloud’s Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality.

Growth asks us to become beginners again, attempt things beyond our present abilities, and learn through practice. It also requires gratitude and rest. We need time to appreciate what we’ve accomplished and replenish our energy for what comes next.

Through stories from Cloud’s book and reflections on leadership, marriage, teaching, and learning to edit this podcast, we explore how growth becomes an expression of character—and how investing in others connects growth with legacy.

In this episode:

• Balancing gratitude for today with a desire to grow.
• Accepting the awkwardness of learning something new.
• Growing into unfamiliar responsibilities.
• Having drive while making room for rest.
• Deepening our understanding through teaching and sharing.
• Developing people as an expression of character.
• Giving attention to our relational, spiritual, and intellectual growth alongside professional success.

Questions for reflection:

1. Can I appreciate where I am while remaining hungry to grow?
2. Where am I willing to become a beginner again?
3. What discomfort have I learned to tolerate because changing feels harder?
4. What is my “why” for growing—and is it deeper than greater success?
5. Who benefits from what I’m learning? Who am I intentionally helping develop?
6. Is there an area of my life that needs attention even though another area looks successful?

A thought to carry with you:

Growth and legacy meet when what we become helps others become more.

Join us next time as we begin the sixth and final character dimension: being oriented toward transcendence.

The Kingdom Corner Reading Room | Host: Matt Geib

Reading: Henry Cloud’s Integrity, Chapter 12, “When You’re Small, You’re Bigger”

Character Dimension Six: Oriented Toward Transcendence

What happens when we begin to see our lives as part of a purpose greater than our own interests?

In this episode, Matt begins exploring the sixth character dimension in Henry Cloud’s Integrity: transcendence. Through the opening lighthouse illustration, reflections on values and character, and stories from everyday life, we consider how humility helps us recognize our place within something larger.

Following the reading, Matt shares questions and personal reflections about meaningful service, integrity, and the gifts we bring to others. Lydia’s anniversary flower arrangement and Kim’s loving care for her family illustrate how ordinary work can carry extraordinary significance. A closing reflection on Psalm 8 brings the discussion to the wonder of God’s greatness and His care for humanity.

In this episode:

• Looking beyond self-interest and discovering a larger purpose.
• Humility and the willingness to adjust to realities greater than ourselves.
• Values that guide our choices when faithfulness comes at a cost.
• Character as an internal regulator and the damage caused by broken trust.
• Recognizing meaningful service within family life and daily responsibilities.
• Giving and receiving gifts within community.
• The Gospel paradox of finding life through surrender and service.
• Psalm 8: our smallness within creation and the dignity of being known by God.

Episode guide:

01:41 — Welcome and introduction to transcendence

03:35 — Reading begins: the warship and the lighthouse

06:56 — The big question: are we the center of everything?

11:27 — Becoming part of something bigger

16:36 — Values, character, and the consequences of self-interest

26:22 — Cloud’s account of broken trust in psychiatric hospital care

31:12 — Personal reflections and defining transcendence

34:31 — Belonging, purpose, and contributing our gifts

35:12 — Lydia’s flowers: transcendence in ordinary life

37:01 — Finding purpose in responsibilities; honoring Kim’s service

38:49 — Values and the cost of honesty

40:00 — Character when nobody is watching

40:41 — The Gospel paradox of giving and receiving

41:26 — Created for a purpose

44:20 — A personal discovery through Psalm 8

Questions for reflection:

1. Where have you found belonging by contributing to something bigger than yourself?
2. Could you already be serving others without recognizing the significance of your work?
3. Is there a meaningful purpose within a responsibility that currently feels burdensome?
4. What helps you remain faithful when your values conflict with convenience or advantage?
5. What governs your choices when nobody is watching?
6. What gift or experience could you offer someone this week?
7. What will matter most about how you lived, and how could that shape one choice today?

Scripture focus: Psalm 8.

Related Gospel teaching: Matthew 16:24–26.

Continue with us as we explore awareness in the next Reading Room installment. You can also revisit the Kingdom Corner virtue arcs for further reflections on character, service, and legacy.

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Six Virtues and the People We Become

What kind of people are we becoming—and how does that affect the people around us?

In this concluding episode of The Kingdom Corner’s six virtue arcs, Matthew Geib gathers the central lessons from a journey through approximately thirty historical episodes exploring courage, endurance, stewardship of power, discernment, wisdom, and legacy.

Through the lives of Daniel, Joseph, Jesus, Samuel, Nebuchadnezzar, and Barnabas, we consider how these virtues take shape in everyday choices and relationships.

In this episode:

• Courage: taking a faithful step when fear and pressure are real.
• Endurance: remaining faithful when the road grows long.
• Stewardship of power: using our influence to strengthen others.
• Discernment: seeing clearly and remaining open to correction.
• Wisdom: responding in a way that reflects God’s heart.
• Legacy: helping people grow through the lives we live today.

The journey comes together through the fruit of the Spirit, the character that supports our gifts, and the picture of believers being built together into God’s living temple.

As we conclude, consider one place to put these truths into practice—a conversation, an opportunity to encourage someone, or a decision that calls for wise counsel.

Key Scripture passages:

Daniel 6; Genesis 40–45; John 13; 1 Samuel 16; Daniel 4; Acts 9:26–27 and 11:22–26; Galatians 5:22–23; Ephesians 2:19–22 and 4:15–16.

Book reference correction:

Near the end of the episode, I misstated the subtitle of our Reading Room book. The correct title is Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, by Dr. Henry Cloud.

There are more stories ahead. For now, let’s carry these with us.

CORRECTION: The Book we are reading on Thrsdays & Fridays Here at the Same Time IS: INTEGRITY: THE COURAGE TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF REALITY By Henry Cloud ..come join us if you can!:-)