“Are you living your resume or your eulogy?”
Our resume tells of all the things we are able to do; our success and abilities.
A eulogy is the speech given about a person at their memorial or funeral service. It tells what sort of life they have lived.
Have you noticed that when people die, their eulogy celebrates life and successes very differently from the way the world defines “success”? A eulogy usually talks about what sort of person they were and how they impacted those around them.
You almost never hear in a eulogy things like:
“What everybody loved most about her was how she ate lunch at her desk. Every day.”
“He was proud that he never made it to one of his kid’s Footy games, because he always wanted to go over those figures one last time.”
“She didn’t have any real friends, but she had 600 Facebook friends, and she dealt with every email in her inbox every night.”
No matter how much time we spend chasing the world’s definition of success, generally these things will not be what is positively remembered when your life on earth has passed.
It’s easy to let ourselves get consumed by our work and all the other so called important pursuits that take up our time and energies.
It’s too easy to “miss” our the real purpose for our lives while we’re living them. We so easily get “caught up” in pursuits that don’t have any lasting meaning or fulfillment.
The question is: Why do we spend so much time on what our eulogy is not going to be?
Eulogies are not résumés.
Our eulogy could instead tell how we lived our lives. How we cared; how courageous we were; how funny we were; how we lived as a human being; how people remember us; how we live on in the minds and hearts of others.
Our eulogy could tell of how we lived out what we believed, our faith that encouraged and helped so many, the small kindnesses, life long passions, and what made you laugh.
Yet so much effort and energy is spent on those résumé entries, which are gone as soon our heart stops beating.
Even for those who die with amazing résumés, whose lives were synonymous with accomplishment and achievement, their eulogies are mostly about what they did and were they were to their loved ones when they weren’t achieving and succeeding in in the world’s eyes.
1 Timothy chapter 6:17-19, says “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.”
Galatians 6:9 says “And let us not grow weary while doing good”
Jesus went about doing good (Acts 10:38). His whole ministry was about setting the oppressed free, healing, giving hope, and destroying the works of the devil. He poured His love and life into those around Him, and the documentation of His life and message (the Bible) has changed the world.
I think our eulogies are meant to look like Jesus’.
“They went about doing good and destroying the works of the devil. (Acts 10:38)
If you have become weary or discouraged because you haven’t seen immediate results, or you fear what you have done amounts to nothing; or you’ve been too busy with your resume that you’ve lost sight of what’s important, take some time now to:
Assess what is really important in your life?
Set your mind on what God says is important. (Loving God and Loving people – Matthew 22:37-39)
Be led in “what is good” by God’s Word.
Encourage others to do the same.
Don’t keep put off focusing on what really matters. Begin today!
Prayer: Lord help me to put first those things which are truly important first in my life. Forgive me where I have not made you the most important relationship and haven’t kept you central in my life. Show me where I have not treasured the people you have placed in my world, and have got too busy working on my resume. Thank you for leading and guiding me today. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Comentários