Articles
The End Of Your Story
“Will you leave people trying to unravel your life to determine who you really were, and what you were really all about? Make no mistake about it. You have a life story. Just as your father and grandfather before you” (Guard Your Heart, Rosberg, p. 38). Ask yourself a few questions as you ponder this:
If my friends and family had to sum up my life in a few words, what would they be?
Would I fill up a funeral home, or have I failed to affect that many people? Would people have to awkwardly muddle their way through a eulogy because nobody really knew what I stood for?
Am I a hero to my children? Will they have lingering, nagging questions about whether or not I loved them? Do I tell them enough now? Will they wonder if I was proud of them?
How will my mate remember me? Will she remember me as being a “sell out”? Will he be relieved when I am gone? Would my spouse marry me again if given another chance?
Is my life story, my legacy, one that people will want to hear about years from now?
So many people end up leaving behind a confusing or contradictory life story. One man, in particular, who has left us a little baffled is King Solomon. Here is an individual who started out so strong in life, who was so humble and obedient to God that he was given tremendous and abundant blessings (1 Kings 3:9-13), yet seems to have stumbled near the end of the race. “For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods” (1 Kings 11:4). His life story was so inconsistent, in fact, that he was used by successive generations as a warning against unfaithfulness. “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin” (Nehemiah 13:26). In this wise king’s affairs we find the depths of foolishness. In his splendorous living, we find waste and opulence. His blessings became his curse. We are left perplexed by him, not comforted, just as with many other Bible characters who seem destined to defeat themselves with contradictory life stories. Adam, Noah, Gideon, Samson, Saul, Uzziah, and many others often leave us in doubt about their overall success as people of God.
Nobody is exempt from the danger, either! “Take heed that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12); “Be careful how you walk” (Ephesians 5:15); “Let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1). Don’t leave anybody confused about what you stood for in life!
