Epitaphs

Epitaphs. They’re a funny thing, aren’t they? Take Alexander the Great, for example. His reads: "A tomb now suffices for him whom the world was not enough." Mel Blanc’s reads, "That’s all folks."

Some of you may remember the ubiquitous commercial for Tombstone frozen pizza - "What do you want on your tombstone?" Jack Handey of SNL’s "Deep Thoughts" fame once wrote, "I hope that when I die, people will say, ’Gosh, that guy sure owed me a lot of money’."

But what really is the summary of a life? And what will be written on my tombstone? What will be remembered of me? I mean, here I am, 31 years old -- a husband, a father... pianist... friend?

I guess you can blame all of this on TNT’s decision to air the movie, "Meet Joe Black" a couple of weeks ago. Of course, as life goes, I missed the end of the movie on TV, and so when I saw the DVD at the library, I went to check it out. As the final scenes played out on the screen, it was Anthony Hopkin’s words that struck me the most. Facing the certainty of death, he faced it bravely, stating these poignant phrases in a conversation with his daughter:

"I want you to know how much I love you.... Don’t worry about me... I have no regrets. And I want you to feel the same way. Everything’s going to be okay."
"I love you Daddy."
"That’s why it’s going to be okay."

And it hit me. What legacy am I leaving behind? James 4:14 says it best: "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (NKJV) What am I doing with the time I have here? If I were to die tonight... is everything going to be okay?

We spend so much of our lives searching... wanting... wishing... and in 31 short years, so much can happen. How many years do I have left? We don’t know. The Bible reminds us that it’s "appointed unto a man once to die, and then the judgement." (Hebrews 9:27) What will be left on my epitaph? What single memory will my life hold for those whom I hold dear?

Lord, help me to make a positive difference in the lives of those around me. Let me rest knowing that if I were to die tonight, everything will be okay. Not because of what has been settled or not in my bank accounts. Not because I have or haven’t obtained everything I wished for here. But let it be because I chose to love as Christ did. And let that make all the difference.

Amen.