Will I be missed

I am excited tonight to be writing. Usually I write on the weekend however after reading some of the wonderful responses I got from my last reflection I just had to share a thought.

A friend from Boston wrote me and included this question which led me to write this reflection. The question is simply this, will I be missed? If you died today (we do not want that to happen) would you be missed? That is an obvious reflection on the life you lived and the impact you had on others. I hope as I am sure you do that we would all be missed however what we think is not always what others think.

Let’s take a small inventory of things to see if just maybe you or I would be missed. Are you a good neighbor? Do you help others in your community or do you stir up trouble thinking you are helping when really you are not? Do you express love and help people in their time of need or are you more than happy to expose the sins of others? Do you take care of the less fortunate with goods from your top shelf or do you make a mockery of the less fortunate by giving them the junk you refuse to use because it is not good enough? Do you help people get close to Christ or do your actions prove to people that Christ does not exist? Let these questions be a reality check, we all need one every now and then.

This list could be as long or short as we want it to be however you get the gist of it. Our hope is that our lives meant something and that our legacy lives on long after we do.

This same writer went on to mention that the way people see God is through the love we show them. It is one thing to preach to people that God loves them however if your actions do not match your words more harm than good is done. We are a reflection of God’s love if we believe we are created in his likeness and image. No one asks us to be perfect nor should we try to be. What we should try to be is good neighbors hence love thy neighbor as thy self.

Will you be missed? Give it some thought, my guess is you will and I say that with confidence because I also believe that most people are good. If you want to prove to people that God is love first show them that you are love. Your actions will lead people to God or away.

Well that’s it for this early week reflection. Thanks to a friend in Boston for sharing a thought. It sure made me take stock in my life and I hope it does the same for you.

Peace and love

Dale Childress