Sunday, June 26th What Will Be On Your Headstone?

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.   2 Timothy 4:7

Nearly thirty years ago, as I mowed our church’s cemetery, I read a headstone with this verse on it. I did not know the man buried there so I was left to wonder if he actually earned that verse or if it was just a nice phrase that his family had put on the headstone.

I have known those who have lived life genuinely earning that verse and I have admired them. In the midst of my worst destruction, I desperately wished that I could magically fast forward through 20 or 30 years of living right to look back with peace instead of regret.

Magical thinking rarely gets us where we want to go however. We live life one day at a time. So, we must choose to purposefully live every day, working towards our goal. Tomorrow we will end up in the direction in which we walked today. If my goal is far from where I am now, wishful thinking will not get me there. I must take every day and purposefully walk in that direction. Progress may seem slow, but it does not happen at all if I do not choose to start walking now.

At the end of my life, I want to hear, Well done, good and faithful servant. I want to have kept the faith. So, today, I will choose to keep my eyes on God. Today, I will choose to sow the seeds of the spirit instead of the seeds of the flesh. Tomorrow I will do the same. This is how we will get there.