| “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.” Ecclesiastes 7:2 We don’t like to think about death. Coming back from my grandfather’s “Celebration of Life” has me thinking a lot about loss, grief, mortality, legacy. American culture doesn’t really like to think about these heavy topics. We prefer youth over age, beauty over wisdom, dances over dirges, and laughter over tears. Maybe, we think, if we just celebrate a life we don’t have to think of the death. But since our ancestors made the decision to rebel against the God of life, every human with very few exceptions has had to face the reality of death. It may come soon or it may come a little less soon, but unless Christ comes first, we all will die. For most of us this is a troubling thought. There is something ingrained into our being that whispers, “This is not that way it was meant to be.” We were born to live. It is sin and the curse that brings death and so we hate it. We hate what it takes from us. We hate what it does to us. And when a loved one dies we mourn. We mourn and remember and know that one day we too will die. And while as Christians we do not mourn as the lost do–we do believe in the resurrection after all–we still mourn. The writer of Ecclesiastes says this is a good thing. Mourning teaches us something really important. It teaches us of the brutal consequences of sin. If we hate death we should hate the act brought death to us. It also teaches us that we to will do so we have to make the living part count. Our days are numbered. We may live to 20 or 120, but there will most likely be a date at the end of our dash. What will we do with that dash? We can live a long time and not make a difference. We can live a long time and do a lot of damage. A life lived for self will always leave a trail of heartache pain. Alternatively, we can live our lives in a way that leaves a legacy of faith, hope and love. When we focus our lives on Christ, when we follow his teachings and example, we know that we can say goodbye to this world having pointed others to the only hope we have in life and death, that we belong, body and soul to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ. So live with the end in mind. |
Beautiful on the Mountains 
For the last 10+ years I’ve been numbering my days. Two years ago I had a 10,000 day Launch Brunch where I hosted men in my life on the occasion of 10,000 days until I’m 80. My goal was to commit to invest each of those days in others by helping and/or influencing people over that span. As of today I have 9,346 days until I’m 80 and if God allows me to live past 80 I’ll stop counting down and start counting up — bonus days!