I Observed a Funeral Today

I observed a funeral today. I don't know why they are so intriguing to me. Perhaps it is that a funeral signals finality in ones life. For seventy some odd years (that is 25,550 days by the way) life faithfully spins on, then in a moment it's over. In life, unlike death, we always have opportunity to change. Whatever trial, challenge, or circumstance we find ourselves in, there is always a thread of hope that runs through it. Hope that tomorrow will be a better day. It is that “better” day that gets us through all the “awful” ones. At the end of the day we can take some consolation that, as Annie says “tomorrow is only a day away”. But with death there is no more tomorrow. Death is the last change, the last trial, the final circumstance.

When I attend (or observe a funeral), I take pause. Where am I headed? What will my life amount to? How will I be remembered? Unlike death, life offers me daily the choice to change my own destiny. I can, today, right now as I draw breath choose who I will be, where I am headed and what my life will amount to in the next few breaths (and a few million to come after). I think most people live their lives like a person driving on the highway with no destination. Driving, driving, driving, turning, stopping, going and going but never arriving. Never knowing where they want to go. We all tend to do it. Life lives us more often then not. It is at funerals when the driving ends and the destination is reached regardless of where you were intending to end up. For some this is a joyous time of celebration, like driving for hours and finally arriving at a favorite vacation spot. For others, it is disappointing, like competing in a timed event only to run out of time before you could complete the event. We say things like "He was to young to die" and "She had so much more life left to live.

Every day we are given is a gift from God. We choose how we will and what we will do with each. We can live it in such a way as to end it in a grand celebration or as a life cut short of direction and fulfillment. Hollow and empty.

I observed a funeral today.

Grace and Peace to you.

P.S. A note to my Christian friends. My post is not intended to leave out our hope in eternity with the Father. However, life on this side of eternity must be lived first. This life is not a disposable, throw away life. It must have meaning and depth, otherwise the next life may be just as empty and meaningless as this one was. You have my permission to read anything you would like into the previous sentence.