Truly Dead Men

 As I walked along the grounds

of the cemetery of my hometown, 

I came across a brash epitaph,

“Let the record show he did it his way.”

  

Just a few feet away

came forth another inscription,

“Where you are I was

Where I am you will be,

Prepare.”

 

One went to the grave

living life his own way.

The other lived his life

failing to prepare for death

until it was too late.

Both men were unprepared for eternity.

 

The former cared only for himself;

the latter cared for others, but

his only advice was for the living

to prepare for that in which

he was unprepared for

whatever that was!

 

The only preparedness for death

is receiving Jesus into the heart

as the One who paid the penalty

of sin, our sin, once and for all.

 

Ironically, Jesus was not mentioned

by either of these men.

So, you sensed that the second man

was not ready…

 

 The words of these truly dead men

revealed two wasted lives

that never invited

their Creator into their hearts.

One played.

One failed to prepare for something.

 

Death immediately revealed

to them both

the absence of the Holy Spirit

and the incomprehensible cost

of rejecting Jesus on

this side of eternity.

 

By the words on their own

granite headstones,

neither one of these two men

was telling us

the best way

to live our lives

in the here and now.

 

Living life your own way or

going through life unprepared

are the ways to the abyss

not to glory.

 

These men couldn’t or wouldn’t

tell us the way because

they didn’t personally know;

they were truly dead men

on both sides of the turf.

 

Jesus, on the other hand,

told us all,

“I am the way, and

the truth, and the life...” *  

 *John 14:6