In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus told some of the religious leaders of his day what the 2 most important commands are….love God and love people. You can read his actually words by following the link above, but that’s the basic idea.

I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want to waste the limited amount of time I have. There are a lot of things that we can invest our time in on this earth, and not all of them are worthwhile investments.

I’m thankful that I’ve gotten to do a lot more weddings than funerals. I’ve only done a few funerals, but I’ve probably performed over 40 weddings. I do remember one funeral though, that really stuck with me.

I was the pastor on call with Seacoast and I got a call that I needed to go visit a guy in ICU. He was a relatively younger guy, but he had drank so much that his body was giving out. I visited the family and prayed for them. I found out not long after that the man had passed away.

They wanted me to do the funeral so a day or so later I met with some of the man’s family to help plan the service. Because I didn’t know this gentleman, I wanted to find out some stuff about him. I wanted to know what funny or pleasant stories I could tell in the service to help people remember the good times. I was sitting in a room with his sister and daughters. I asked them to tell me the good times. I’ll never forget what one of his daughters said to me. She looked at me and said, “Honestly, there really wasn’t that much good about him.” Whoa…….how tragic.

Apparently, this guy had drank and lived for himself for so many years that he didn’t spend much time investing in the things that mattered. I remember sitting in the office that night writing the last formal words that would be said about this man. I found myself feeling a combination of sadness and anger.

I found myself wanting to talk to this guy. I wanted to say, “Dude, it didn’t have to be this way. Why did you live your entire life investing in the wind? You didn’t have to go out like this. Now some guy, that you don’t know, is going to try to pretty up the ugly truth about you. Why did you waste the time you had? Why didn’t you invest wisely?”

Now, I know I don’t know the full details of this man’s story. There may be a lot of mitigating factors as to why this guy lived the way he did. I don’t know about his childhood or why he made the choices he made. I do know however, that the day after her father died, his very own daughter couldn’t think of a few nice words to say about her dad.

Something about this experience will always stay etched in my memory. I don’t want to be like this man. Jesus told us the 2 things that we can invest in that will transcend our own limited existence….loving God and loving people. We breathe in the love that God has for us and then breathe it out to God and to the world around us. I want to spend my life investing in my relationship with God and pouring out my time, talent and treasure into a hurting world.

Some day, each of our clocks will run out. The last grain of sand will fall to the bottom of the hourglass. Someone like me will sit with your family and ask them about you. Words will be spoken, people will try to remember the good times and then they will do their best to carry on. Each of us will then give an account of our lives to God and Jesus has already given us insight as to the nature of that conversation. Questions like these will be what matters….

Did you give your life to Jesus Christ?

Did you invest your time in loving God and loving people?

Did you care for the broken?

Did you surrender to God’s will?

Did you follow the Holy Spirit’s leadership?

Did you pour out your life for others?

Are you investing in the accounts that matter the most or are you investing in the wind? That man had invested in the wind and not a lot could be said about him when the smoke settled…we all get to decide each and everyday what will be said about us. Invest wisely…