“Living life in the context of your imminent death”.

I often visualize my death, where this may seem to be a morbid exercise – especially for a Christian, there is a purpose, if I may explain. I begin by visualizing my funeral, seeing my friends and family gathered over an open casket, and I notice my face which reveals my chronological age, I am struck by the fact that I am not as old as I assumed I would be, or hoped I would be. This is where the “dreaming” ends and the “reflection” begins.


At this point I reflect on what all the days between the present and my imaginary funeral would look like, it’s a piling together how the over arching theme of my life will play out. It is here that the theme becomes my legacy. I don’t believe that legacy is what you say or believe about yourself, it is what others will honestly say about you, it is comprised of what those who knew you best and those who knew you least would attest about you. As I consider death, the theme of my life, and my legacy I am brought to question. First, what do I imagine, or what do I desire my legacy to be? If I could summarize this into a simple statement and place it upon my headstone what would it say? Yet the larger question is, all things remaining constant, what “simple statement” would others place upon my headstone?


So what is my point in this exercise you ask? Well I think 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 puts this in perspective; ^24 “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶ Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; ²⁷ but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified” – NASB.


The Apostle Paul’s description of his Christian liberty and the fact that while he (Paul) had “rights” to certain activities or liberties, he refused to allow his liberty to derail him from achieving what God had called him to do. Now the association I make between my “mental exercise” and the aforementioned passage is this, legacy is not only what others would say about you, but ideally it is the fulfillment of ones God given calling that is evident and undeniable, the visible fruit of a life lived before God.


So going back to my “mental exercise” the last few questions I ask myself are, am I on track to achieving my desired legacy? Or is my liberty (the good things I am allowed to do as a believer) leading me toward an end I would not choose for myself, or worse yet a life wasted before God. You see I never want to allow what we would label as liberty (or sin for that matter) to derail me from my God given calling, and thus my little exercise serves as a means of correcting life’s course, [as much as we can control], toward achieving our desired legacy goal. Of course this all precludes a willingness to see change through when it’s warranted.


I close with this thought, Are you headed toward a gravestone marked with a profound statement of a life led by God or are you headed toward a gravestone marked with nothing more than a name and date?

Luther.