“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

                                                                                                John 15:15

Stephen Covey wrote a book called Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and in it he asks a very interesting question.  “What would you want people to say about you when you die?”

I’ve heard they changed the question in the latest editions because people got upset being reminded that they might die. That’s interesting to me. The last time I checked, there’s no “might” about it. The mortality rate in the world remains at 100%, even if Coronavirus had never appeared. As Jim Morrison wrote and sang in a 1968 Doors song, “No one gets out of here alive”.

What would you want your family to say about you? Your spouse, your kids, your brothers and sisters?  How about your friends? What would they say? Or how about the people you work with?

What reminded me of this question was reading the obituaries in the paper one day recently. (Yes, I still read the newspaper. Every time they send me a free one.) As I read through the obits, I realized that not one of them talked about the kind of car the person drove (although one guy loved “muscle cars”). Not one mentioned the square footage of the house the person lived in. Only a few mentioned where the person worked, but only in passing.

What was listed, however, were all the relationships the person had. Or at least the most important ones. And that made me realize; when it’s all said and done, the thing that matters the most in life are the relationships you have.

It is also the truth that it is what matters the most in death as well. There is a relationship that begins in this world but is realized in its fullness only in the next life. It is our relationship with Jesus Christ. Our personal, one-on-one, trusting, believing, loving relationship with the Son of God. It is a relationship that will be ours for all eternity, and yet many times here on earth, we stray (and sometimes just walk away) from the bond we have with Christ.

James tells us that we are a mist – a vapor – that appears for a little while and then vanishes. We have the opportunity, however, to ensure that a new life will go on, even beyond the end of time as we know it. And it is this relationship with Jesus Christ that gives us that promise.

I encourage you today to take a look at the relationship you have with our living Lord. And then I encourage you to nurture it, foster it, and to make it grow and blossom into all that it can be. Not only will it benefit you today, it will be of even greater benefit when your name is listed in the obituary column of the paper and in the book of life.

And about that Jim Morrison lyric. It’s true, we don’t get out of here alive because we are all going to die. But when we’re out of here, we’re more alive than ever if we have that personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

“Father, Help us to come to know Your Son personally and to walk with Him daily. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.”

Grace,

Rev. Dan