I’ve been thinking a lot about life and death this summer. This summer has been a doozy for people passing away. Acquaintances, old friends, family of friends and, just this week, two influential celebrities, Lauren Bacall and Robin Williams. Fortunately, I haven’t had a lot of people die in my life that I am really close to. I know death is a part of life. I know that as a Christian, this life is not the end. And I was reminded just yesterday by my best friend of Jesus’ last words, “It is Finished”. The comforting thought that this life will be finished…we’ve done what we were meant to do here.
Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s watching my children grow, maybe it’s focusing more on my health and staying healthy, I am not sure. But I am increasingly aware of how precious each day is…and incredibly conscious of the picture I am painting throughout my life here. Each day, each month, each year paints small strokes, big strokes. My picture is painted on my children, my friends, my co-workers, my clients, my family, my neighbors. What picture am I painting each day? What picture are you painting?
Upon hearing of Robin Williams’ tragic death, I remember his wonderful monologue in “Dead Poet’s Society”, where he quoted the Walt Whitman poem we were required to learn in college, “O ME! O Life!”
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
And then Robin Williams asked in character, “And what will your verse be?”
No matter your perspective on death, it is real and it is certain. As you approach your day and your week, be conscious of the verse you are writing or the picture you are painting. Not for legacy’s sake, but for the seeds that will be sewn long after we have lived out our purpose.
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