LIVE Before You Die
I read one famous person's obituary recently and all it kept saying over and
over about this person is how funny they were
and what a great sense of humor they had I thought to myself, "How meaningless."
To come to the end of life and the only positive thing somebody can think to say
about you is that you any good sense of humor
how sad, how tragic. One time I actually
ran across my own name in the obituary section in the newspaper.
Another person named Daniel kolenda had died and it was
it was an eerie feeling to say the least. It was as though I was reading my own
obituary
and it reminded me somewhat uncomfortably
that one day there will be an obituary written about me. My friend, the reality is
that one day
there is going to be an obituary written about all of us. One day they're gonna boil our
lives down
to a few words in the newspaper. Just imagine with me for a moment that
CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox
we're all running marathon coverage of your death and talking about the
significance in your life.
Imagine that they had to put your entire earthly existence
into a one-sentence news crawl or a front-page headline.
What would it say? Better yet, what would you want to say about you and about the way
you lived your life? My friend, your answer to that question
will tell you a lot about what's important to you. And that raises a
question: what is it that's really important to you?
what is it that you're living for? if you listen to the feel good wisdom of the
age
calling out to you from television and music and magazines and self-help books
you may come to believe that the chief end of being is finding happiness and
success in this world.
But the reality is my friend, all the things that the world tells you
are so important are actually utterly meaningless
and any person who lives for those things is going to be miserable in life
and unfulfilled in the end.
This beautiful Gothic cathedral behind me is Westminster Abbey.
It's one of the most famous and iconic historical landmarks here in downtown
London
right across the street from Parliament and "Big Ben." It's also the final resting
place for some of British history's most illustrious figures
for a thousand years. These people were kings and politicians
they were aristocrats and scientists artists poets and musicians.
As I was going through the list of the people that are buried here most of the
names were totally unfamiliar.
But every now and then I would come across a name that was absolutely
larger-than-life.
I'm talking about people like Sir Isaac Newton, William Wilberforce and Charles
Darwin
and David Livingstone. You know these men,
though they are memorialized here in their death, they're really known because of
what they lived for. These men were like rocket boosters pushing forward a
particular cause
or particular purpose. Like rocket boosters that
push a space shuttle into orbit, their lives have now fallen away,
but the ones we know we know because they lived
for a purpose and for a cause that was bigger than their own lives.
Just inside the building here
on the South choir, there's a plaque to John Charles Wesley that says this,
"God buries his workmen, but carries on His work. Actually, the Wesley brothers
are great example of what I'm talking about. Because the Wesley brothers' lives
we're dedicated to the work of God. They were like rocket boosters in God's hands.
They've been dead for many generations, but kingdom of God is still moving
forward
and the small part that they played in advancing the Kingdom of God
makes their lives meaningful and significant.
Before he died, Paul said to Timothy, "I'm already being poured out like a drink
offering
and the time of my departure is at hand" (2 Tim. 4:6). You see, to Paul, he saw his life
as expendable for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Yes, he would be poured
out like a
drink offering and then he would fall away like exhausted rocket boosters,
but not without having first done something of eternal significance.
Paul would use his little, mortal, finite life
to propel God's eternal kingdom forward and that knowledge to Paul
was complete satisfaction. You know the reality is
that we're all expanding our lives. We're all going through the finite
fuel that we've been given. Yet many people give so little thought to what it
is that they're actually living for.
But the clock is ticking and every second that passes
is a second that can never be recovered so let me ask you my friend
what is it that you're living for? What is it that's going to make your life
count? What is it that you're pushing forward with your
energy your time your finances and your passion?
The truth is that all of us are living for something. We're all pushing
something forward.
We're all making a difference in this world for better or for worse.
But you only have one life. I hope you're investing wisely
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