Tag: Death

In Memoriam:
Willie Smith
Feb 21, 1953 – Feb 26, 2011

My friend Willie lived a hard and tortured life,
for forty years an addict, acquainted well with strife.
Homeless and feigned, to the world of little account,
wandering and alone, to what could his life amount?
But one day he met a family, who loved him just as he was,
and showed him that when no one cares, Jesus always does.
Willie came to know Jesus, and gave up prostitutes and drugs,
he became a part of our family, and shared our tears and hugs.
I knew only a small part of the blessing that was Willie,
God had clothed and cared for him, just as he does the lillys.
I saw heart level change, in a man plagued by his past,
he lived in community, found a home; no longer an outcast.
But by and by Willie began to relapse, and return to his former ways,
Eventually he was murdered, by an acquaintance from older days.
What can we say of this life that is now gone?
Was Willie’s life meaningless? To his darkness was there ever a dawn?
For the two years Willie was a part of our family, he had love and true friends,
he received the grace of Jesus, and with his Maker made amends.
And though his life was cut short by bread of bitter leaven,
we know where Willie is, with Jesus, in heaven.

What will be said, when they put you in the ground?
Will your life have had meaning, will it have been profound?
Will you have made a difference to those you leave behind?
Will your life have been more than a short span of time?

What will people read, when they walk by your grave?
Will your tombstone have anything worth reading to say?
Do you live your life now in light of your death?
Will what you do matter after your last breath?

The wise remember the day of their doom,
And ever live life in light of their tomb.

“It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all the living, and the wise lay it to heart.”
Ecclesiastes 7:2