The Dash

Some of you my know that my stepdad passed away recently and we had his funeral on Monday.  Funerals really do make you think.  You sit there and listen to a person's life being wrapped up in a one hour service and you cannot help but think what people would say about you when you die and what you would want people to say.  My brother's good friend from high school came from out of town to do the service and he did a wonderful job.   He read a poem that I had never heard before (maybe I am the only one?).  It is called The Dash by Linda Ellis.  Here is a portion of it:

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end


He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years

And the last stanza was what really got me:

So, when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

 My Sunday School teacher talks often of finishing well.  He tells us how difficult it is to finish this Christian life well.  We may do amazing things for years and years and then towards the end of our life we may just kind of give up. I pray that I spend my dash for the Lord because when it comes down to it - what else really matters?  And I hope I can say:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.  II Tim. 4:7-8