Life or Something Like It?

There is a good reason why there is a picture of a tombstone with my name on it. I'll get to it in a minute, so don't be freaking out. I'm still here, at least for the moment. Like I said in my last post, Kathy and I went to church conference earlier this week. One of the speakers (Mark Balmer from Calvary Chapel Melbourne) had a lesson on Tuesday morning that has really got me thinking. He spoke about how we don't take time to reflect upon how we are living our life. He used the following scripture from Ecclesiastes as the basis of his lesson.

"It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart" Eccl. 7:2

He then took this scripture and paraphrased it to say something like "It is better to go to the cemetery and think about your life and how you are living it, then to go to the best party." Again, that's not exactly how he paraphrased it but it captures the essence of what he is trying to say. He said that reflecting on our lives in a cemetery causes us to think about our death. And that thinking about our death helps us think about our life. I realize that many of us have spent way too much time in the cemetery saying good bye to loved ones. I'm not making light of death nor do I have some morbid obsession with death. Actually, it's my hope that it's the opposite, that I have a healthy obsession with life and making the most of it. Anyhow, he went on to say that there was a survey that asked the question "If you could live your whole life over, what would you do differently?" Keep in mind that this survey was compiled over many years and did not specifically target people of faith - it was taken by people of all different kinds of backgrounds (religious and non-religious). The number one response to this question is quite interesting. He said that the overwhelming majority of folks responded by saying "I was too busy and didn't take time to think about what I was doing with my life." Too Busy - Didn't Take Time - Didn't Stop to Think - isn't that the truth?

As I sat there listening to him I was reminded of something I had heard before. I was told that when you go to a cemetery to pay careful attention to the tombstones. If you look carefully at the dates on the tombstone, you'll usually see something you've seen but never really thought about: the little dash between the two dates. (I know my picture doesn't show one) The dash can be easily overlooked in favor of the two dates on either side of it. But the dash is the most important part because it stands for the life the person lived and everything they did and stood for. It's not the date we were born on or the date that we die that matters. What matters is how we live the dash in between. The challenge we all face is not to waste our lives on things that don't have any real importance or value. So what's important? What's of Value? What Matters Most? For me, it can be found in the words Jesus spoke when he said "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love God and Love My Neighbor - This is what "the dash" should represent.

Now I haven't been to the cemetery to ponder my life...yet. Nor have I went and looked at the dash on any tombstones. However, I have recently spent a fair amount of time looking at the picture above this post. It is the tombstone of my Uncle Ronnie, my dad's brother. I was named after him, even my middle name. If you notice he was only 13 months old when he died and he died on Christmas Day. It's a very sad and tragic story. I'm saving his story and how it affected my life for another time. Anyways, it is a very strange thing to look at a tombstone that has your name on it. Perhaps some of you have had the same experience. I believe it has the same affect as going to a cemetery and thinking about your life or pondering the meaning of "your dash". It puts life into perspective and helps determine what's important. Looking at this picture helps me determine what's important.

Now as most of you know I'm not what you would consider a "Deep Thinker". My point is simply that I realized that I don't stop and take the time to think about what I am doing with my life. I can get so caught up in living life that I don't think about how and why I'm living life. All I'm suggesting is that we stop and think about our lives and how we are living it, think about your dash. Here are the last couple of lines from a poem entitled "The Dash". I find it to be very appropriate.

For that dash represents all the time
that he spent alive on earth, and
now only those who loved him know
what that little line is worth.

For it matters not how much we own;
the cars, the house, the cash.
What matters is how we lived and loved
and how we spend our dash.