50 Years After Your Death
Our Pastor was talking about living a meaningful existence, a “purpose-driven life”, and he explained:
“50 years after your death, your children will likely be very old or dead, and your grandchildren may once in a while mention your name, or maybe you will accomplish something to merit a mention in Wikipedia…”
Other than that, nobody will even remember you existed.
The context was that the only enduring thing is a close-knit relationship with the Creator, which in turn makes living in His Creation meaningful. God provides a framework of accountability and submission. Putting Him at the center of your thoughts, words and actions means checking your pride and ego at the door.
George Carlin died this week. He was very funny and always questioned and challenged any religious dogma whatsoever. I heard him say that believers have it easy, because they can justify every horrible action with “It’s God’s will…” I may have little understanding, but it is much harder to live by His word than that. Being accountable to perfection cannot be easily done.
I do enjoy Carlin, Maher and Larry David and I find it amusing how threatened they are by the Christian faith. There is a lot of hypocrisy, I agree. But there are a great deal of people of faith doing incredible things.
While I agree with Pastor Scott that we will not be remembered, I do think our actions in our wink of an existence can have a lasting impact. First and foremost, we can try to teach our children values that will positively affect whomever they come into contact with throughout their lives.
You can try to instill the importance of good communication, honesty, self-awareness, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, kindness, compassion, service, and a positive attitude.
This of course takes time, but if you have children, is there anything more important?
My grandpa died 9/29. He was 98. Just a few months after his death, few remember him. His impact is felt in the dysfunctional, yet loving family he left behind. He lived through a lot of history, and was a key link in a chain of emotionally stunted generations. I say link, since I assume he was not the origin. It has taken me years to break out of this chain, and I hope that 50 years after my death, my monumental efforts at restraint have some positive effect.
Grandpa did not know God. I hope my children do.