II Chronicles 21:20 Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed without being desired. Howbeit they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.
Real Living Requires Giving
Epitaphs demand brevity. You cannot afford to write too many words on a headstone because you are paying by the letter. What will be on your headstone? What will people say about you when you are gone? The truth is that when you are gone other people will have the last word because, obviously, you are gone and they are here. I know that what is most important is what God knows, but what will people say?
Writing about a king named Jehoram, II Chronicles 21:20 says, “Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed without being desired.” That was his epitaph. When he was gone, no one was sorry. The Bible goes on, “Howbeit they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.” He was buried in an honorable place, but not with an honorable burial because he did not live an honorable life. He died by himself, unwept, because he lived for himself without any remorse. If you want to know how a man came to the end of his life and departed without being desired, go back to the beginning of his reign.
Earlier in this chapter it says, “When Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren.” That is the way so many people think today. They think that if someone else is being blessed, then they must be burdened. They think that the only way to be built up is to tear others down. That is why you see so many people who never think of anyone else, who climb, grasp, clutch, scrape, and step on anyone who gets in their way in order to get what they want. That is not living. True living requires giving. When a person lives his entire life for himself, then that is how he is going to die, by himself. Jehoram departed without being desired because he thought that in order to become anything of significance he had to diminish other people.
If you didn’t show up today at school, work, or church, would you be missed? I’m not trying to focus your attention on yourself in the way that this bad king did, but I think it is important to think about self so we can judge whether we are living for self or if we are giving to others. Some people brighten the room when they leave, and that’s not what I want to do. I want to be a person who brightens the room when I enter. The question is, “What are you doing to invest in the lives of others? Do you feel as if others have to suffer if you are going to gain? Do you realize that living is giving?”
There will come a day when everything that happened in your life will essentially be summed up on a 4×6 card or a headstone. What will those words be? More importantly, what will your life mean right now? That is something about which you have a choice. The best life is a life that is lived, not trying to gain, but trying to give. Such a person will certainly gain both blessing and the appreciation of people who have been helped.