July 26, 2006

• What’s in your dashed line?

  
  

  Today, I made a detour after work and ended up at a cemetary.  It was my first time in one — they call it a “memorial.”  I walked around reading the different grave markers on the ground.  Some only had a name, year of birth — a dashed line, followed by a year of death.  A dashed line!  One line to indicate years and years of great and foolish activities, thoughts and acts by a person.  Fathom that!

  
  

  A lot of markers had relationships – “Beloved Mother, Sister, Friend”, etc.  Some had titles and credentials – “Dr.” “Ph.D.” “Lt.”  “Captain.”  Some had poetic lines (Emerson) or random song lyrics (“What a wonderful world.”).  Others had lines like “gone from our home but not our heart” ”will be remembered forever” “rest in peace.”  Some had Bible verses (John 3:16) – “never perish,” the one about Jesus preparing a place for us (John 14:2-3), and Phil 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  One had “Safe in Jesus’ arms” and others phrases like that of being Home, eternity, etc.  And one that stood out to me most was, “Faithful servant of God.”  What a title to be given!

  
  

  I got to thinking about how death happens to everybody and wondering what my grave marker will say.  Life is but a breath in the span of eternity.  It is recorded, by grave markers, merely by a dashed line and a few phrases.  What will I invest in my dashed line?  Things with eternal returns or titles and credentials that easily have leaves and grass fall all over?  Will my dashed line affect lives for all eternity?  Will there be grave markers of souls that say (and are!) “safe in Jesus’ arms” because I gave my life up to be used by Him?  What will I use my dashed line for?

  
  

  Grave markers are written by those who knew the departed.  I don’t write my own gravestone.  So…what will my life be marked by?  Will I merely be “a friend” or “faithful servant of God”?  People will remember me by how I live my life.  So how will I live it?  What will I be remembered for? — But even more important than all that, if God were to write my gravestone, what words would He etch to describe my existence on earth?  I pray that I could be faithful.  (Journal entry from Sept 7, 2001)

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