Planning my Funeral?

Recently I have been thinking about my funeral. I know what you are thinking… “Brandon you are 23 years old, have a wonderful family, you are in good health, and have a long life ahead of you. Why on earth would you waste your time or burden yourself with such a daunting subject?” Honestly before a couple weeks ago I had not given it much thought, but there have been a few things that have jump-started this thinking.

First, I read Michael Hyatt’s book “Creating Your Personal Story.” This book was spectacular. Hyatt discusses how important and helpful having a plan for your life can be. He discusses how it helps with purposeful living. The way he starts though, is telling the reader how in order to know how you are going to get somewhere you must first know where it is you want to end up. So he sets this up by having the reader imagine their funeral and what people will say about them at that occasion.

The second thing that has happened is my great-uncle has been hospitalized with pneumonia. He was put into an induced coma to reduce the stress on his body. Then a few days later he had a heart-attack. While he is still alive (THANK GOD!) it helped jump-start this funeral thinking.

I’m at a point in my career where I have been considering a change (This may be dangerous posting online since I have only discussed this with a few people). I feel God’s call and pull in my life, but so far it has been difficult figuring out where that pull is coming from or to what it is leading. My head begins to spin when I think about the possibilities of where God may be leading me next.

There are so many things that I have talked about becoming. I want to go to Australia, I want to read more, I want to write more (maybe even a book), I want to be a great husband and father, to be used by God to reach out to hurting teens. Who is it that I want to become? Who do I want at my funeral and what do I want them to be saying about me? I spent several hours thinking about these things. I was really surprised by the subjects and people that popped into my mind. When I started thinking about what I wanted them to say the words just started flowing onto the page.

Now I know that just because I have this “life plan,” which I am not even close to completing, doesn’t mean that I will have all the answers but I believe that this accompanied with prayer, continual Bible reading, and a faithful life, I will have a pretty good road map and be able to make a more informed decision, on anything God may be doing in my life. I would serious encourage the reading of this book and then creating your own personal life plan! Hyatt even gives worksheets and resources to help in the process! May we all continue to seek God’s Kingdom above all else and find what it is He desires for our lives!