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I posted a few days ago about contemplating death. I cheesed that one up a bit but I still have some thoughts about it.
So, what if? What if death was certain to come long before it was expected? I'm still working from the perspective of the last few months of 2010 being the last few months. Ever.
In thinking about all of this, I've realized that nearly everyone has an idea of what they want their life to be, but it's always from hindsight. That is, looking back on their life from their deathbed, taking inventory and hoping that it was something worth remembering. Preachers talk about this a lot when they are on the topic of leaving legacies or living a life of character and whatnot. But I've been thinking about what my life has meant up to this point, if this were the last point.
It seems to me that family-oriented people want to be remembered for the way their children turned out. Those who have multiple young 'uns seem to almost always form some sort of long term plan and center everything around guiding their kids into that plan. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anything against that. Whether it be family businesses or raising a family basketball team, some folks put their legacy into what they leave behind in their children.
For others, it's their career. These people are easy to spot because they are the ones who live their work. You know the type. No matter if they're at home, church, Food City, mowing the yard, or on the john, they have Blackberry in hand and they are talking about the office. And they manage to take a work-centered, spiritual approach to everything.
I could go on and on about the different views people have about how life should look from the far end, but what about the differences those lives make in the lives of others? Isn't that why we're really here to begin with?
I think of all the people I know and have known and how different all those folks were from each other. I have been blessed to get to know so many people in my quickly lengthening life and I think I've taken something valuable from each of those relationships. Even the ones that were less than favorable influences on me. Each and everyone of those people had some idea of how they want to be remembered.
Some want to be remembered for being fun-loving and well-liked. Some go through life craving a sort of worship and hope that people will talk to a picture of them after they're gone. Some very godly people I've known just want to die knowing they have reached lost people. Others want to be mentors and apostles. And some people probably don't really care how they're remembered.
As for me... I've given this considerable thought and I think that I could, whether tomorrow or years down the road, pass on satisfied if someone could stand at my funeral and say that I loved them at a time when they didn't feel lovable, if I brought them a sense of calm and peace when their life was going to hell. Maybe that allowed them to see Christ when they needed to experience His hope and comfort the most.
You know, after re-reading that, I think I better get busy.
