I did another funeral this weekend. It's always difficult, even in good situations, to deal with the memories of a a lifetime. How do you handle the "stuff" that's been collected? I remember when Mom died, we hired a dumpster to be brought to the house. As we cleaned out the house, we threw away so many things she had collected through the years. Of course, there are some things we kept. I have a Bible of hers, some clothes pins, and other odd things. (Clothes pins? The old kind, not the kind with a spring. I used to put them together and make an airplane out of them.) Soon after we did this, my brother Charles sent a poem by Emily Dickinson.
The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon Earth.
The sweeping up the heart
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity.
Solomon said, "What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?" I used the King James on purpose because of the word "profit." Profit is what you have in the end, when the bills have been paid, net. What do we have in the end when we die? There is no profit. The saying, "You can't take it with you," is true. Charles Swindoll says he's never seen a hearse with a U-Haul trailer attached.
So Emily's words are true. Our investment in things is "a striving after the wind." Instead, our investment ought to be in what survives into eternity...people. I hope your day is a good one. JW
1 comment:
Jim, thanks for the thoughts. It seems, too, that I am doing more funerals that ever before. And, not all are older folks. I've said often that of all my preaching times there is never an audience as attentive as those at funerals.
I preached my mom's funeral in August of '06 and my stepdad's two months later. They lived with us and we're still clearing/cleaning out stuff. Funerals are indeed sobering times.
Thanks, again. I love you.
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