Leadership Thought: What Do You Want Written on Your Tombstone? 

Dear Friends,

I don't know who said it, but it is so true, "The only thing that walks back from the grave with the mourners and refuses to be buried is the character of a man." What a person is always survives him. It can never be buried.  I don't know if that quote hits you the way it hit me, but it really captured my attention when I read it. To me it is a powerful reminder of the importance of living a life that is remembered for who you were and not what you did.

In one of my favorite books, Finishing Strong, James Farrar writes what he desires as an epitaph on his tombstone were the words, "He didn't screw up." I too would like to be so remembered. I hope all of us desire to live our lives in such a way that when those mourners walk back from our grave site, our character walks back with them and it is not left buried in some graveyard.

These thoughts brought to mind a prayer that the apostle Paul uttered on behalf of the Philippian church. Paul writes, "And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge, and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1: 9-11. 

Paul is simply praying for the development of character in the lives of those believers. He prays that their character might be sincere and without offence. Some have translated the word 'sincere' to mean tested by the sunlight. Thus, the mature believer should not be embarrassed to expose his character to the light. There are no hidden aspects of his life. It is open for examination.

A man once told Charles Spurgeon, the great British preacher, that he wanted to write his biography. Spurgeon replied, "You may write my life in the clouds! I have nothing to hide" (Commentary on Philippians, Warren Wiersbe, p. 26).  

I close with a comment made by Phillip Brooks that I hope will be something each of us will carry with us throughout our lifetime, "Character may be manifested in the great moments; But it is made in the small ones."

Amen. 

Yours in ministry, 

Tom