Reflect:
II Timothy 3:10-17 & 4:1-8
“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 4:7-8)
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 tombstone. 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! 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
Epitaphs like that confront you with the unavoidable reality that one day you will have your entire life summed up and chiseled onto a stone for others to read. Paul got an epitaph…I will get one…you will get one, too. The only question is, what will yours say? I hope mine will be like Paul’s:
I have fought the good fight
I have finished the race
I have kept the faith
Whatever you want yours to say means that you’ve got to live your life that way between now and then—starting today!
“No man ever repented of being a Christian on his death bed.” ~Hannah More
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