Eavesdropping on My Funeral

Thanks for your patience while I was away. It is good to be back. I won't be back to my normal rhythm of life until September though, so please be patient and check back if I don't post weekly. Thanks!

The classic Tom Sawyer is one of my favorite books. In one section Tom and his friends have been off playing pirate while the whole town searched for them. When the good people of the town became convinced that the boys had drowned in the Mississippi they planned a funeral. The boys hid in the gallery and listened with glee as the preacher "drew such pictures of the graces, the winning ways, and the rare promise of the lost lads..."

I sometimes wonder what my own funeral will be like. I think it might be fun to listen, like Tom, Jim, and Huck to the things people say about me. What will they say? What will stand out about me and the way I am choosing to live when I am gone? 

Hopefully, like the good townspeople mourning Tom and company, people won't be harshly honest in their appraisal of my life. I am a small person leading a small life. On the other hand, God won't alter his appraisal of the way I spent the time he gave me on earth just because that life is over. If pleasing God requires doing great deeds my life will never measure up.  Am I spending my life the way I should?

Lynn, a new friend of mine reflected on her blog (http://lynnetangible.blogspot.com/) about Jesus' answer to the question "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" She said that his answer is surprising because it is not about doing anything. He said, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." (John 6:28-29)

My friend asks, "Does God long for us to believe--we who are already believers?  I think he does.  When our prayers don't get answered the way we like (could we possibly be praying the wrong kinds of prayers?), when dreams shatter and the unthinkable happens, do we "believe in him whom he has sent"?

If I get to hide in the gallery of heaven and listen as friends and family talk about me after my life is over, maybe the best thing they could possibly say about me would be simply "she believed".