Merry Christmas, You're going to die!

"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!"- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

"You are going to die." Thank you Pastor Rob for informing us all. I'm not going to lie, this was not the typical Christmas message that we expected going into church today. It wasn't all happy and merry, but instead gloomy and depressing. However, even so, quite honest. We are all going to die and we all do have to ask ourselves, what will be written as the ending of our lives. Good 'ol Ebeneezer says above that the lives that we are living now predict what the ending of our lives will be. It is up to us to change that ending. What do we live for, what will be said that we lived for? This has been something that has been on my mind for the last few days. What is it about myself that needs to change? What can I do to change it? What do I not want people to remember about me? What do I want people to remember about me? Being home, makes me think about this the most. When I am with my friends as they are toasting to getting "effed" up. That's not me, that is not what I want people to remember me as. A defensive person who jumps on people's cases...that is not who I want to be remembered as. A person who is too blunt to the point that makes other people feel like trash...that's not me. I want to be a person who people can see Christ through. A person who is consistent in faith. Who has hope for things and is not a cynic. A person who loves other people more than myself. A person who is different from others in radical love. There is a woman in my church. She is 96 years old. Mary Fran Euler. She is one of those people who Christ's love radiates from. She has the joy of the Lord overflowing in her life. She is in her last days and she still has joy. She still pours love into everyone that she meets and wants to get to know everyone that she meets. This is the type of person that I want to be. When I don't get enough sleep, I can't be joyful...when she is on her death bed, she is full of joy...what is wrong with this picture?

You are going to die...what do you want people to remember?

Merry Christmas.