Are You Living a Life that Matters?
I spent the day at the hospital recently…having an irregular heartbeat problem checked out. The doctor will continue to run tests but he is of the opinion that all will soon be back to normal. I have to confess, though, that it was a bit frightening and definitely a wake up call. We so take for granted this wonderful gift of life.
I ran across this article tonight and it made me stop and think. Perhaps it will do the same for you…
Ready or not, someday it will all end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, or days. All the things you have 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. At the end, it won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the the tracks you lived. 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 matters 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. 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 are 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…
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