THE BREAD BASKET

Have you ever thought about writing your own obituary? Alfred Nobel did. The Swedish chemist had made millions by inventing and manufacturing dynamite. In 1888 Alfred's brother Ludvig died in France. As Alfred read the obituary in a French newspaper, his grief turned to dismay and consternation. What he was reading was not his brother's obituary, but his own! (The newspaper editor had confused the brothers.) "The Merchant of Death is Dead!" is what the headline proclaimed. Alfred Nobel's obituary described a man who had filled his coffers with wealth by helping people kill one another.

From that day on, Alfred Nobel was a changed man. Troubled by what the editor had written regarding him, Nobel in a sense wrote his own obituary by purposing in his heart to use his wealth to alter his legacy. When he died eight years later, in 1896, Alfred left more than $9,000,000 to fund awards for those whose work would benefit humanity, not destroy it. Today we know those awards as the Nobel Prizes. Alfred Nobel had a singular opportunity--to look at the appraisal of his life at its end and still have a chance to alter it.

Isn't it true that you and I have but one brief opportunity-a lifetime on earth-to make a difference? James 4:14 describes the span of our years as "a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." If we could see just five minutes beyond death, we'd know exactly how we should have lived here and now. But then it will be too late!

The question becomes, "Will those you leave behind regard you as one who accumulated treasures on earth that you couldn't keep"? Or will you be recognized as one who "stored up treasures in Heaven" (Matthew 6:20)--treasures you couldn't lose?

John Wesley once wrote: "I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity." And then there's the well-known quote by Missionary C. T. Studd: "Only one life, 'twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last." So ... do you need to rewrite your obituary?