On the Cross and the Giving and Receiving of Criticism

On the Cross and the Giving and Receiving of Criticism

Your eulogy

I do a lot of funerals for non-church going people, which is a way of giving both comfort in time of need and of holding out hope, by preaching the Good News. In other words, it is a subtle form of evar of evangelism, which I take seriously.

At many of these funerals, people get up and give eulogies that are often bittersweet. The saddest ones make no mention of God, faith, or church. It appears that God simply hadn't been a factor in that person's long life; or if faith was a part, it didn't seem to be important enough to mention.

I wonder at your funeral, will your faith in God be mentioned at all when you're eulogized? Or will your friends and family just talk about your job, hobbies, vacations, and folksy stories, without a single mention of faith-matters? What might that indicate regarding your commitment to Christ?

The Road Ahead

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself;
and the fact that I think I am following Your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please You
does in fact please You.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this, You will lead me by the
right road though I may now nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust You always, though I may seem
to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will
never leave me to face my perils alone.
-Thomas Merton