How Do You Want to Be Remembered? --How our interests reveal our gods.

A few years ago, I visited the home of someone who had recently passed away. I remember an upstairs room where he kept an enormous collection of model cars. One entire wall was covered with cars on shelves. It was clear that the man had been an avid car collector and treasured his possessions. Somehow, though, at that moment these items seemed a bit unimportant.

I saw a kinship between this man and myself. I am also a collector (mostly of comic books) and my garage is similarly filled with boxes of comic books which offer me temporary entertainment, but ultimately fail to offer something lasting. My visit to this man’s car collection put things into perspective for me.

In the years since, I’ve attended many funerals where the person who died was described in great detail, their professional accomplishments, hobbies, or how much they loved their family. I walked away feeling like I had known them well, even if I hadn’t. 

These funerals have truly been convicting and I can’t help but reflect on my own life when attending them. I wonder what people would say about me at my funeral. Would people talk about how many long hours I worked and how much I loved my job? Would they talk about how many comic books I had amassed? More importantly, would anyone mention that I loved Jesus ?

I hate to admit it, but I think there are many people in my life who, if asked to speak at my funeral, might be happy to tell some stories of good times we had together, but wouldn’t even mention my faith. I hate to think that someone could know me and not know how important Jesus is to me.

These sad events have motivated me to live a life which would demonstrate my love and commitment to God.  I want to live my life in such a way that, when I pass away, they will not remember me without thinking about my faith because we are so intertwined and it is such a big deal to me. In fact, I do not need to be remembered or to build a name for myself that the world will remember. When all is said and done, all the kingdoms built and all the trophies won will crumble into dust.

I’ve got only one life to live & I don’t know how much time I still have left to make an impact. But I’d like to be the kind of influence around me that when people thought about me, the first thing that would come to their mind was how much I loved God. Not what was my hobby or my career.  

If I am going to be remembered, I would like to think my love for God would be foremost on the things people thought about.

James 4 :14 : For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

How will you be remembered?                                    (Adapted from an article of Jimmy Wallace)