Epitaphs

Read II Timothy 4:1-22

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept
the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on
that day—and not only to me, but also to all
who have longed for his appearing.”
(II Timothy 2:3)

Thoughts… This is the self-summation of Paul’s life—carved in perpetuity by God’s hand in the granite of His eternal Word as a living witness to the faithful life Paul lived. This is his epitaph, if you will.

And one day you, too, will have an epitaph chiseled on a headstone. If you doubt that, take a stroll through a cemetery and you’ll see that everyone gets one. In fact, I’d highly recommend that stroll, because what you read on the final markers tells a lot about the lives of those buried beneath them…and so it shall be for you!

Paul got an epitaph…I will get one…you will get one, too. The only question is, what will yours say?

Here are a few of the more humorous epitaphs from history:

One from England reads,

Anna Wallace
The children of Israel wanted bread
And the Lord sent them manna
Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife
And the Devil sent him Anna

One that a lot of people might relate to states,

Owen Moore has passed away
Owin’ More than he could pay

Another one from the Old West reads,

Here lies Lester Moore
Four slugs from a forty-four
No Les
No More

One found in Silver City, Nevada says,

Here lies a man named Zeke
Second fastest draw in Cripple Creek

One of my favorites was found in Texas. It simply says,

I Told You I Was Sick

But here’s one that will not only make you laugh, it will cause you to think:

This is what I expected
But not so soon

Epitaphs like that confront you with the unavoidable reality that one day you, too, will have your entire life summed up and chiseled onto a stone for others to read.

A New England headstone captured that sobering truth well:

As you pass by and cast an eye
As you are now so once was I

You’ll have an epitaph some day, and whatever you hope it will say means that you’ve got to live your life that way between now and then. I hope mine will be like Paul’s:

“I have fought the good fight
I have finished the race
I have kept the faith

Prayer… Dear Father, teach me to number my days aright, that I may gain a heart of wisdom. My I live each and every day so as to hear you say on that final day, “well done, good and faithful servant.”

One More Thing… “No man ever repented of being a Christian on his death bed.” —Hannah More