How Will You Be Remembered?
epitaph
n 1: an inscription on a tombstone or monument in memory of the person buried there 2: a summary statement of commemoration for a dead person
I was reading recently, and came across Benjamin Franklin's autobiographical epitaph and found it very interesting.
" The Body of B. Franklin, Printer; Like the Cover of An Old Book, It's Contents torn out, And Stript of it's Lettering and gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the work shall not be wholly Lost: For it will, as he believ'd, Appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and Amended By the Author."
This got me to thinking (and it doesn't take much :-) about my life. Will it's contents be torn out and wholly spent for the Author? Or will I still have lettering and gilding left on my pages? Will my life have been meted out, as Ben Franklin used to say "For the good of Mankind", or will I have spent my life on myself, and selfish pursuits? Lord help me to, each day be "stript of my lettering and gilding."
n 1: an inscription on a tombstone or monument in memory of the person buried there 2: a summary statement of commemoration for a dead person
I was reading recently, and came across Benjamin Franklin's autobiographical epitaph and found it very interesting.
" The Body of B. Franklin, Printer; Like the Cover of An Old Book, It's Contents torn out, And Stript of it's Lettering and gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the work shall not be wholly Lost: For it will, as he believ'd, Appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and Amended By the Author."
This got me to thinking (and it doesn't take much :-) about my life. Will it's contents be torn out and wholly spent for the Author? Or will I still have lettering and gilding left on my pages? Will my life have been meted out, as Ben Franklin used to say "For the good of Mankind", or will I have spent my life on myself, and selfish pursuits? Lord help me to, each day be "stript of my lettering and gilding."
posted by Brent F at 7:44 AM
4 Comments:
I love that, "stript of my lettering and guilding." It seems so easy to sail through life, never really spending your self for any one or any cause. The American culture seems to constantly be pushing to consume and attain as much as possible, yet what we are called to do and what this world desperately needs is for us to pour out and spend our heart, mind, bodies, and soul completely on the cause of giving away the love God has freely bestowed to us. Uncle Brent, your thoughts definitely got me thinking as well...what am I "spending" my life on? Not even my life as a whole...but what am I spending my years, months, days, and moments on? Myself? Or others?
i've been contemplating this same stuff lately....
Check out the definitions of spend
spend: To use up or put out; expend: spent an hour exercising.
To pay out (money).
To wear out; exhaust: The storm finally spent itself.
To pass (time) in a specified manner or place: spent their vacation in Paris.
To throw away; squander: spent all their resources on futile projects.
To give up (one's time or efforts, for example) to a cause; sacrifice.
We tend to think of spending in terms of money, because our society is so focused on it. Yet, we can spend (use up or put out; expend; pay out;wear out;exhaust) any resource we have.
So, how do I spend my money, my time, my talents, my reputation, my position, favors owed to me, etc? In other words, what do I exchange them for.
A life well invested is one in which we exchange things of lesser value to the kingdom for things of greater value. Thanks for the reminder.
Franklin once wrote in Poor Richard's Almanac: "If you would not be soon forgotten soon as you are dead and rotten; either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing"
Makes me wonder if what I'm doing goes unnoticed by everyone else, will it still bring glory and honory to God?
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