The Three Deaths

First, when your body ceases to function.

Second, when your body is consigned to the grave.

And finally, when your name is spoken for the last time.

We should get the first two. And as a Christian, I know that I will not die eternally but have everlasting life because I have trusted Jesus. Yet the concept, the reality, that one day I will no longer be remembered…that’s a little haunting. Maybe it shouldn’t be. Maybe that’s just my vanity. There is something Ecclesiastes-ish about being, essentially, gone as in gone-gone. The crabgrass growing over your tombstone is gone. As in “my great, great grandfather, what was his name” gone.

Well, I can’t control all that. That is all coming down the road straight at me, faster than I would like to think. Yet, I am committed to remembering the men that have had an impact in my life. Thus begins our first blog series with Sword & Shovel. In remembering our brothers, friends, and mentors…we honor God the Father. He made Bruce. Rick. Bill. And the rest. He built them for impact. He made them with care and purpose. He fashioned them for a reason.

So we will begin…with the end in mind.

Gone, but not forgotten.

Well at least we can prolong the inevitable amnesia. We can write tributes. Tell tales. Laugh, cry and remember our brothers, and by so doing, give glory to God.
Yes, we will be forgotten. But not yet.

And may the plans, purposes and promises of our great Father continue to be remembered for all eternity!

To God be the Glory!