MEDITATIONS ON MORTALITY
You can learn a lot from walking through a graveyard. Last week, I discovered some much-needed perspective on life, while strolling through Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery.
The richest of the rich lie beneath the soil, along with the poorest of paupers. You can spot the grave of Robert Ripley, of “Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not” along with the sister-in-law of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. Bodies of folks living over one-hundred years rest in peace next to those who survived only a few days. Civil War veterans are in abundance. Tombstones of Confederate soldiers are all pointed, rather than round. No Southerner wanted any Yankee sitting on his grave.
On each visit I find myself meditating on my mortality. The Lord impresses me with the profound reality that the grave is the great equalizer. “The same fate is waiting for us all” (Ecclesiastes 2:14).
Rich or poor, wise or foolish, we’re all basically the same. Gazing at the grave of a man who died in 1899, I realize that his concerns were identical to mine— he worried about his family, his finances, and his health. Yet how much does any of it matter now?
Ecclesiastes 3:1 comes to mind. “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” (No, the Byrds didn’t compose those lyrics; the Holy Spirit did 3,000 years earlier). There is a time to be born, and a time to die, as every generation discovers.
I gazed at the grave of a mother who is buried next to her six children, who all perished of the Spanish flu in 1918. I can’t imagine her devastation, and walk away wondering, “Why?” Let me know if you figure that one out!
I’m guessing no one alive remembers 99% of the folks buried there. My worldly accomplishments seem so miniscule in significance. If a million people subscribe to this blog or buy my next book, should I even give a rip?
But my most profound “mausoleum meditation” is this. “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). In the end, Jesus is all that matters.
Yes, you can learn a lot from walking through a graveyard. Try it sometime, when you’re stressed, angry, or sad. You’ll be surprised at how much the dead can teach us about life.
Principle: The dead can teach us a lot about life.
Ponder:
How might weighing the reality of your own mortality give you a different perspective about life and death?
What helps you most when you need to adjust your priorities?
Pursue: For a deeper dive, study Ecclesiastes three.
Prayer: “Lord, the mystery of life and death is deep. Please help me to develop your perspective on this reality.”
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