What Will Matter



Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.
Michael Josephson

'Love your enemies!  Pray for those who persecute you!  In that way you will be acting as true sons of your Father in heaven...' But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Matthew 5:44,46

We Are the Champions!

We Are the Champions of the World!

by Queen

I've paid my dues -
Time after time -
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime -
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face -
But I've come through

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls -
You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it -
I thank you all -

But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise -
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race -
And I ain't gonna lose -

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

The theme of this song is that the band singing it has won something...big. In the song it is fame and fortune. It is played at all kinds of sporting events and in celebrations of all kinds by and for people who are celebrating victory over something or someone.  I like the song.  I've been singing it since it was first distributed ???? years ago.  I happened to hear it on the way home this morning from a meeting that I had and it's been playing through my head ever since.

But I wonder how many of us have really listened to the lyrics?  It's really a fairly short song, as songs go, and it dawns on me that there is more to the song than just the 'winning' part.  The song begins with a focus on how they became winners..."I've paid my dues-Time after time - I've done my sentence, But committed no crime - And bad mistakes I've made a few- I've had my share of sand kicked in my face - But I've come through."

I've been considering, lately, whether or not we're teaching our young people the value of paying their dues, making bad mistakes and learning from them, and even having my share of sand kicked in my face.  It's the next line that I think I like the best...But I've come through.  At this middle portion of my life, I have come to appreciate, not necessarily the battles (who really wants those), but the coming through part.  The Bible says we will be tested "I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested." (Zechariah 13:9).  I don't like the fire, but coming through the fire and knowing that I've passed that test certainly makes me feel better about myself.  I believe that creates our self-worth or self-esteem.

I'm afraid, in our efforts to love and care for our children, we've not allowed them to face the fires of their lives.  We've shielded and protected them.  We wanted their lives to be better than ours, not to have to work as hard as we did, and we've kept them from some valuable life lessons in the process.  It's when they've worked their way through the fire-the test-and come out the other side that we all can then celebrate and sing "We are the champions."  But notice the rest of the chorus...  "And we'll keep on fighting - till the end - We are the champions - We are the champions, No time for losers- 'Cause we are the champions - of the world."

Certainly, I appreciate the "we'll keep on fighting till the end," but the "No time for losers" brings me up short.   We are all losers at various points in our lives, aren't we?  Isn't this another valuable lesson for us all to learn?  Someone mentioned to me the other day that she was concerned that all of the children in a baseball tournament had received trophies.  She said that she understood the point was that everyone had come out and tried their best and they were rewarded for their effort, but her question was, "When do the kids learn how to lose?"  I thought this was a very good question.

Every one of us, at what will probably be many points in our lives, will lose and we need to learn how to do that just as much, if not more than, how to win.  Winning is fun; the celebration of the victory is easy.  It's the losing that requires us to reach down inside and become something better than we were before.  It's back to that dues and mistakes piece again.   Children and adults learn best when put to the test and given the opportunity to "sink or swim" as my dad used to say. 



Perhaps one thing has nothing to do with the other, but I believe it's worth considering.  This one life we are given is full of tests and trials.  It's not the tests that are important, it's how we handle the test while we're taking it and what we do with the lesson when we're done that is important.  I hope that we are giving our children the opportunity to take these tests and to succeed or fail all by themselves.  Our job isn't to protect them from the test but to show them how to take the test and what to do with the results.  There will be successes and we will "take our bows" and "curtain calls", but there will also be failures and it's in the failures that we can teach them yet again. 

Here's to all the "champions of the world"...and to the losers.  We've got plenty of time for both!