Take Stock

PREVIEW: Take a stroll through a cemetery when you get a chance and read the epitaphs on the tombstones. On them, you will see the history of those dearly departed ones succinctly packaged by the dash between two dates — the date of their birth and the date of their death. The dash is what we call life. One little dash, but what a story it tells. And often, those who are left behind sum up the departed one’s dash with an inscription left on the headstone, an epitaph. So, here is a question of utmost importance: What will yours say?

A Journey of Worship // Psalm 39:4-7

Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered — how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath. We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it. And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.

One day you will have an epitaph chiseled on a headstone. If you doubt that, take a stroll through a cemetery, and you will see that everyone gets one. Seriously, as morbid as it might sound, I’d highly recommend that stroll because what you’ll read on those markers will tell a lot about the people buried beneath them.

On the headstones, you will see the history of those dearly departed ones succinctly packaged by the dash between two dates — the date of their birth and the date of their death. The dash is what we call life. One little dash, but what a story it tells. And often, those who are left behind sum up the departed one’s dash with an inscription left on the headstone, an epitaph.

Some of those inscriptions are profound. Some express tremendous love or a deep sense of loss. Even those that are quite humorous still deliver a sobering reminder. There are websites dedicated to the more memorable tombstones in history. But whether profound, heartwarming, heart-wrenching, or even funny, each epitaph is quite instructive, like the one that not only made me laugh, it really made me think:

This is what I expected — but not so soon.

Epitaphs like that will remind you of the unavoidable reality that one day, you, too, will have your entire life summed up and chiseled onto a stone for others to read. There is a New England headstone that captured this sobering truth:

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

We will all have an epitaph one day. King David, the author of this psalm, got one. I will get one, and so will you. The only question is, what will yours say? So, here’s the deal: Whatever you hope it will say means that you will have to live your life that way between now and then.

David, who was far from a perfect man, apparently did a great deal of thinking about the end of his life. That’s what this psalm is all about. And it really changed the way he lived out the rest of his dash, so much so that at the end of it, his friends wrote on his headstone:

A Man After God’s Own Heart. (Acts 13:22)

Hmm! I think I’ll take some time today, and while I’m at it, I’ll take some stock, too, on what my tombstone will say. Why don’t you join me? And if our current appraisal is not what we would hope for, let’s make a course correction — beginning today.