Last week I delivered a message at a funeral for a man who was 93 years old. He had lived a good, healthy life working at a job he loved doing.  In fact, he finally decided to retire when he was 87 years old!

As I was putting together the message for the service, I was combining what I knew about Hank with what the family had told me.  I always prepare a new message for every funeral. It’s important for me and, I believe for the family, to personalize the message as much as possible.

I had known Hank for twenty years or maybe a little longer. He and his wife, Mary, had faithfully attended our church until their health began to slip. Everything I knew about him was positive, making it relatively easy to put the message together.   

As I was preparing, I was reminded of a small sign in our church office that reads, “Live your life in a way that the preacher won’t have to lie at your funeral”.  I’m not going to lie any anyone’s funeral, but Hank made it easy to avoid the temptation. He was a man of faith and a faithful man. He was honest and generous. I would describe his demeanor as calm and pleasant.  He had an appearance that seemed to tell others he wasn’t expecting any special treatment and was thankful for everything.

Have you ever wondered what others might say at your funeral?

Whenever I’m driving our church van, I have trouble remembering to fasten my seatbelt.  I never have trouble when I’m driving our SUV.  It’s only a church van problem.  I’ve concluded the reason is the beeper that signals the seatbelt is not fastened is not annoying enough.  It’s kinda quiet and doesn’t beep very long.  If I am killed in an accident not wearing my seatbelt, I’m thinking the word “dummy”, or something similar may come up in my eulogy.

I was recently reading 2 Chronicles 21 in the New Living Translation.  When I got to verse 20, it stood out to me: “Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years. No one was sorry when he died. They buried him in the City of David, but not in the royal cemetery.”

I thought what a dismal, wasted life. A young man with potential and position who lived his life in such a manner that nobody cared about his death.  Nobody missed him when he was gone. In fact, I get the feeling the people were glad to see him go.

Many years ago I was called upon to conduct a graveside service.  I think this is probably the most disheartening service I can remember doing.  The man who had died was in his late forties.  He was never married.  His only family was his parents who ask me to do the service.  What I found especially troubling was that his parents couldn’t find much of anything to tell me about him.  When I asked them about his life they told me he served in Viet Nam and when he got out of the military he found employment as a welder.  Now you know as much as I knew about him, except I was also given his name and age.  They had nothing to say about his personality or hobbies.  They couldn’t speak to his faith. They knew nothing about his attributes. They couldn’t even think of a childhood story.

He came, stayed a while, and left.  That’s a sad story.

I think we all would like our lives to count for something.  We would like our time on the planet to have some kind of meaning. We want to be successful.

Here’s the definition of success I have shared with many others through the years.

Success: Finding out what God wants you to do and doing it.   

There are those who know what God wants them to do and won’t do it. There are those who find out what God wants them to do and don’t believe it. Some are afraid of doing what God wants them to do. Some people don’t care what God wants them to do.  Some don’t believe there’s a God.

For those of us who do believe in God, here is a formula to pursue for success that I’ve taken from Genesis 1:26-28.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

When we read the account of Creation, we see our purpose. Striving to fulfill our God-given purpose leads us to successful lives.  So here’s what I see.

First of all, we are here to reflect God’s image. 

I often wonder what others think of God when they look at my life.  One of the reflectors God has put in us that show what He is like is our emotions.  Like our Creator, we have emotions.  God’s emotions are always directed in the right manner.  Mine are not.  So, when people watch me they sometimes don’t get the best view of God, because at times my emotions are not Christ-like.  However, whenever you and I direct our emotions properly, they do reflect God.     

Lord help me with my emotions.

Secondly, God created us to rule over His creation. 

That means “TAKE CARE OF IT”.  There are too extremes mankind has put into practice that miss the mark.  Some rape the land and suck everything out of it for their own benefit and luxury.  Others worship this world to the point where they become servants of it, even subservient to animals.  Pet owners are sometimes examples of this phenomenon.  I recently heard someone say, “Dogs have a master. Cats have a staff”.   Sounds right.

God's direction for man to have dominion over His creation is not a license to ruin it, and neither is it a command to worship it.  He wants us to be good stewards of His creation as we use it and enjoy it.

Lord help me in taking care of what You have allowed me oversight over (House, apartment, yard, or thousands of acres).   

Thirdly, God created us to reproduce godly offspring. 

The command to be fruitful and multiply of course means making babies.  However, as Christians, we’re also commanded to go make disciples. When an individual believes Jesus is who He says He is and asks Him to come into their life, they are added to the family.  The newest ones are called babes in Christ, and we’re all then referred to as children of God.  In other words, we can all take part in helping God multiply His family!

Lord help me influence others toward Christ.

So when your life on earth is said and done, what do you want people to say? How does that compare with what they will really be thinking?    A man told me that he attended his uncle's funeral and was seated next to another uncle.   As the deceased was being eulogized and all the good things were being said about him, the seated uncle leaned over and whispered,  "Are we are the right funeral?"

He or she came, stayed a while, and left.

My hope for each of us is that others will say, “We reflected God's image, took good care of our little piece of His vineyard, and influenced others toward Jesus”.

Those will be lives well lived.