Everyone Has A Story

I attended a funeral today for a child of a friend. It was a very difficult and sad time. However, what I wanted to share was what I did immediately following the funeral.

I have a habit that I started probably some time in my teens. When ever I attend a funeral or cemetery, after the funeral I walk through the cemetery and look at headstones. I read about the fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, grandfather or grandmother that is buried in the cemetery. I read about their lives as displayed on a headstone.

As I am doing this, I try to imagine from the artwork or images on the headstone what the person was like. Perhaps they were a fallen firefighter or police officer...or maybe a proud Harley Davidson rider. Some appear to be immigrants from a foreign land, or descendants of those who where. I will probably never know if I was right or wrong on figuring out who these people are, and thats okay.

Nonetheless, as I was doing it today after the funeral, I think for the first time, I actually thought about what I was doing. It became clear that everyone of us has a story. As I spend time trying to figure out the stories of those already passed, we spend time trying to figure out each others' story.

I think that the story God gave you and the story God gave me are personalized to us. We have a choice to make: We can suppress our story, and some day someone can try and figure it out on our headstones, or we can use the story God has given us to reach people for Christ and to glorify God.

I want to use my story for the later, but sometimes I feel like people will have to wait until I die to read my story. I will continue to strive for giving God the glory. How about You?