Have you ever thought about your own obituary? It seems that the inventor of dynamite through some fluke of reporting got to see his in a newspaper and didn’t like what it said about him. This made me contemplate what God might say about mine, but it also made me pause to think about it myself; the question being, how would I respond to my own obituary? I mean, if you could write your own epitaph, wouldn’t you want it to somehow reflect a life devoted to the Lord? I recently heard on the radio that the greatest enlightenment is to know the Will of the Lord. The greatest achievement is to do the will of the Lord. If you could craft the truth about your life today, to make sure that when people spoke at your funeral, they would speak of your level of service for the Lord, what would you immediately begin to do differently? In the case of the inventor of dynamite, we now have the Nobel Prize(s) because he didn’t want to be remembered as the inventor of wholesale slaughter. Because he read his own obituary before he actually died, Mr. Nobel was able to do something to positively affect how others might think of him upon his actual death. If they wrote yours today, would it please you? Would it please God? If not, why not?
In this instance for me, the thought of death made me consider life, mine. What had I done for the Lord, lately, like today, now? Am I doing anything consciously out of love for Him, rather than the fear of consequence by Him? Do I follow rules because I believe in them or because I am afraid of what will happen if I don’t? That’s an even more interesting scenario if you’re talking about God’s rules. Is my obedience to God based solely on fear? Or, looking at it from a different perspective, is my obedience based on love? Whatever they say in my obituary, undoubtedly me and God will know the truth. And if the truth be told, we all want to be remembered fondly. I suppose the thing that made me think about this a little longer than I wanted to, was the truth that new life begins at death. The quality of that life might actually be influenced by one’s spiritual obituary. That obituary might best be viewed as a new birth certificate. If you can conceptualize that now, then what might you be able to do that would favorably impact your new life? I just thought it would be a beneficial exercise to commit from today forward, to “wordsmithing” your obituary by living a life according to principles you would be proudest of to show God. You pick yours. I’ll pick mine. We both know we’ll be held accountable at that death new life moment.
I believe it would be a great effort, a beautiful thing to be able to influence the dash between your birth dates, your physical one and your spiritual one. You see we have no control over those three points of life and death and life again. But that dash will serve us well for eternity. It will be what comprises your obituary here on earth. So please pay attention and may God bless and keep you always.