Our church friend Bob died unexpectedly yesterday morning. This morning people were very saddened to lose someone too soon and we all were "circling our wagons" to support Bob's wife and family through their time of grief.
As I drove home from church I heard a particularly distasteful commercial for an expensive watch. This ad asks, "What does your watch say about you?". Obviously, this line of thinking works because the ad runs daily. Someone is buying those expensive watches or else the company couldn't afford to run ads on the city's strongest radio station!
Hearing that ad while still thinking about Bob was thought provoking. What did Bob's life say about him? Bob didn't wear an expensive watch, in fact I rarely saw him "dressed up", but his life spoke more about him than any expensive watch ever could. Bob will be remembered as a low-key physician who practiced in an ordinary Chicago neighborhood. He will be remembered for his post-retirement identity as "Builder Bob" who, hammer in hand, encouraged congregants' assistance with Habitat for Humanity projects. He will be remembered for his often funny "yeah, but" questions at Bible study. He will be remembered for creating great fellowship on men's fishing trips. He will be missed greatly as husband and dad.
What a strange society we live in. We are bombarded with messages that tell us that what we own will make us a better person, yet at the end of life, does anyone care that you wore an expensive watch or lived in a McMansion complete with a turret?
Bob's funeral will be sad, but it will also be a celebration of a life well lived....a life that had nothing to do with watches or turrets...and a celebration of Bob's eternal life in which Bob has probably already been told, "Well done, good and faithful servant.".
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