My friend Howard Harvey shared an e-mail he received from a friend. It was a poem. Not a piece of classic literature, mind you. But a thought-provoking several lines about living one’s “dash.” You know what your dash is. It’s that little fragment of a line between the years of someone’s birth and death. You know how it’s written in text or on grave markers: “Shirley Jane Doe (1945 — 2000).”
That tiny, nondescript dash stands for everything she ever was or did. It covers all her accomplishments and fears, all her accumulations and losses, everything that made anybody notice and care that she ever lived at all.
For it matters not, how much we own:
The cars . . . the house . . . the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.
The anonymous poem Howard shared reminds me of a sermon by an African-American preacher that I heard years ago. He read Mark 4:35-36 and told how Jesus and his disciples launched their boat on the Sea of Galilee. Then he read Mark 5:1 that tells how the little group “went across the lake.”
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Everyone is writing his or her own eulogy every day.
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He titled his sermon “Between the Launch and the Landing.” The material he omitted tells of a “furious squall” that “nearly swamped” their boat. It tells of the disciples’ fear as Jesus slept in the stern and of the miracle that happened when Jesus rebuked the storm and said, “Peace! Be still!”
Between the launch and landing of every life, between the date of your birth and death, there will be storms, fears, and failures. But there will also be those occasional triumphs of faith. You will call out to the Lord, and he will be there!
If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile . . .
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.
The poem closes with a reminder that everyone is writing his or her own eulogy every day. And all of us will care how it reads.
Would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?
Life doesn’t promise smooth sailing, but those who travel with Jesus on board are guaranteed a safe landing. So how are you living your dash?
© 2000, Rubel Shelly. Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly's "FAX of Life" printed each Tuesday. See Faith Matters for previous issues of the "FAX of Life."
Living Your “Dash”