Ashes to Ashes

                                                                Ashes to Ashes

If you ever think that life is short look at the paperwork we accumulated...Birth certificate to death certificate. There are school projects and papers, signing your life a way on a mortgage. Our paper trails pave our lives. When we’re gone is that what defines us?  Sometimes I have to pull wills for our home sales at work. I can’t help but wonder what this person was like. Were they loved?  Did they enjoy their life?  Nothing lasts, stays the same or can be taken with you. Eventually all of this “paperwork” that defines our realities will be ashes. As we are ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Where do the “things” that we make such a big deal about matter in the end? That car will rust, the money will be spent, and the house will rot. What about the things and people that matter? The gifts from God that we forget so easily every day, take for granted and literally forget in our day to day goings on. Our true legacies are left in the love that we had, the lives that you touched and were touched by.  Not in how much you weighed or how much money you made. If God is whispering in your ear to do something he means it go do it and see how your life will change...Help more, be lazy less, Hug more, hate less. Smile more…easy one frown less, Love more Hate less (we are all guilty of hate... some just hide it better than others)  

Life is a roller coaster ride it has everything... Screams, thrills, scary moments, fun and sometimes disappointment in the end or high elation... That one is up to you.

Our attitudes dictate our lives, the attitudes of others affect us, but we ultimately must choose right from wrong, good from evil, love from hate, health from sickness.  We choose those things. Life is hard. God never said it would be easy, but he did promise us Love. His love is a love that will never leave us, even when we are too blind to see that it is still there and we think we are alone. We are supposed to love others as we love ourselves; this is the second most important commandment in the bible. There are some people that love themselves entirely too much and if they learned to spread the wealth they might be more well adjusted. However, the same goes that spread all of their love to others and have nothing left to give themselves. They are drained and end up very unhappy and usually lonely. There is supposed to be a balance to life. Like Ecclesiastes 3 states there is a time for everything.

A Time for Everything

3 There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2     a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3     a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6     a time to search and a time to give up,

    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7     a time to tear and a time to mend,

    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8     a time to love and a time to hate,

    a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

15 Whatever is has already been,

    and what will be has been before;

    and God will call the past to account.[b]

16 And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,

    in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

17 I said to myself,

“God will bring into judgment

    both the righteous and the wicked,

for there will be a time for every activity,

    a time to judge every deed.”

18 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath[c]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

So from ashes to ashes and dust to dust fill your life with the things of God, love one another and those papers that make up your life won't be important, but the legacy you left will.

Kendra Maples

August 22, 2013

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.