What Mattered to You?

It’s been a rough few months for the church I work with. We’ve had over a dozen people pass away who have been members here or connected here in some way.

It’s amazing what you hear both at the funerals and the visitations about the deceased.

“He was a good man.”

“She was one amazing woman.”

“He sure did love his sports.”

I’ve heard predominately what the person loved. His or her family, their cars, their sports, both local and abroad. And that got me thinking.

Ask this question: If someone were to say something about you at your funeral if you died today, what would it be? Would it be that you were a hardcore Tennessee Vols fan? Or that you lived and breathed baseball? Of that you really liked Star Trek?

What will people remember you by? Your hobbies? Or who you really were?

What will people say that mattered to you?

As much as some of us hate to admit it, what we spend our time doing is what matters to us the most. You spend most of your time working? It isn’t because you have to work, it’s because that’s what matters to you the most. Spend most of your time in hobbies or collecting? That’s what matters to you the most.

Time management is a scary thing. You only have 10,800 minutes a week to fit things in. That’s everything - sleep, work, play, family, hobbies, eating - everything. What you spend your time on matters the most to you.

Ecclesiastes 3 is the famous “There is a time for everything” passage, and it rings so true, even though it was written over 2500 years ago. There is a time for everything. There is a time when my little boy won’t be a little boy anymore, so maybe I need to prioritize my time off from work and not be distracted when I’m with my family. Maybe I need to spend less time playing retro video games and more time playing with my young son. Maybe I need to focus on my wife instead of the 1000 other things that I have to do - all of which will still be there for me to do tomorrow (Matthew 6.34).

I spend way too much time obessing about my time. Once it’s gone though, we’ll never get it back. So let’s use our time wisely, and live in the moment. Because when we’re gone and people are talking over our casket, we want them to say that we were Godly and that we loved our families more than anything.