Recently I was asked to sing at a funeral for a friend of Whitney’s.  She loved Christ and is with Him today.  I wrote this note some time ago but I wanted to repost it on this blog. 

“You are preaching your own funeral.”  

Not too long ago, I heard a speaker say this and it has stuck with me.  I am preaching my own funeral every day.  When I think about that, it worries me a little.  As I look back on my life, I have taken many a wrong turn and have done many stupid things.  I’m sure I have hurt people I love, lied, cheated, stolen a thing or two (including my mom’s wedding ring when I was in 1st grade but that is a different note for a different time) and have done all kinds of other irresponsible things.  If I really am preaching my own funeral, it worries me about what people might have to say.  There have been days when I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize the person I saw.  I would see a man that had given in to the false hope this world had tried to sell me.  In a moment of defeat, I would hang my head and internally give up.  If living a godly life was this difficult, why even try?

I have known so many godly people in my life that have helped me “get back up” from those internal defeats.  Most of those people don’t even know that they had any influence on me but something about the way they lived, changed my life.  Even in those rough moments, I can reflect back in victory knowing that sin has no power over me, and neither does my past.  I am who I am because of Jesus, and because of where I have been.  I’m not perfect but I’m not trapped.  I know that through faith, my life has hope.  And so does yours.

We live in a crazy world that has somehow got a stronghold on us.  I don’t know what that stronghold is in your life but trust me its got us.  We all fall down, scrape our knee, and long for someone to kiss it and make everything okay again.  It’s in our nature.  The hope that I am learning to lean on is found in trust.  I trust that God is making all things new.  I trust that He has a plan for my life even after this body is six feet under.  He has the same plan for you.  You just have to trust Him.

God has allowed me to be a part of so many great things in my life.  I have been given the opportunity to travel the world, see lives changed by the gospel, and meet tons of people way cooler than I am.  I have the best family in the world.  I’m blessed with a wife that loves me and supports who I am while I’m trying to become who I want to be.  My friends are also way cooler than me and it makes me have to step up my game to stay in my social circles.  All this to say, I’m a blessed guy.  It hasn’t been all defeat over the years. It’s been an amazing ride that I hope continues on into me becoming a better husband, a father, a granddad, and a friend to many.  But one day, life as we know it now, will end.

So what if its true?  What if we are writing our own funeral?  If so, hopefully your eulogy will go something like this.

“______________________ was a human being, made up of flesh and blood, that used his earthly self as a means to point people to Christ.  Though imperfect, his heart was for people and for their souls.  He didn’t waste his life, but gave of himself in hopes that people would see Jesus.  Though he is gone from this earth, he will live on in his family and in his legacy. Jesus lived in __________________.”

Live every day as if it were your last.  If your last breath came right now, you would be gone, but your legacy and what you lived for will never die.  I pray that we outlive our lives in pursuit of Him.

JL