Something You Need to Do Before You Die

It does not need to be long. It should take you about thirty minutes. Shorter than that and you have not given it sufficient thought. Longer than that and you will be second guessing yourself or talking yourself into things you do not really believe. Do it in a quiet place. Pray before you start and after you finish. When it’s finished, keep it. You will want to look back at from time to time. I suggest you write your own obituary and you need to do it soon.

Hebrews 9:27 tells us “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” and James 4:14 warns that life is a vapor “that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Death is as certain as the judgment at the return of Christ and it comes sooner than you think. So you need to write your obituary soon.

Write down what you want your life to be. Think about what really matters to you. What good will that fancy car be when the preacher talks about you in the past tense? What role will the vast music collection play in eternity?

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:19-20

Instead you will want to write about the type of family you have, and the work you did. Your legacy will need to be about how those who knew you were blessed because of your example and kindness. You get to write your own obituary after all, make it a good one!

So many of us have the right idea about what we want to do. We want to be a faithful Christian with a good family. We want to serve God and be useful in the local congregation. We want to be kind, loving, generous, and honest. But if we fail to turn these wants into a plan and the plan into action we will want all of it and have none. Jesus discussed true discipleship as recorded in Luke 14:25-35. If we will not count the cost of our discipleship then we have not planned and therefore we will not have. Jesus asks,

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Luke 14:28-30

Write you own obituary and make it a good one. Finish it on paper, and then see about finishing it in your life. They will speak well of you at your funeral, but the true prize is much greater. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (II Timothy 4:7-8).