The Dash

Tonight I listened to Pastor Ben Harris, the Men’s Pastor at Shadow Mountain Community Church give a message on God’s grace in our lives and how we must respond to it. While there were many gold nuggets of information in his message, the thing that stuck out most to me – and will stay with me – was his example of “the dash.”

“What is the dash?” you may be asking.

The dash Pastor Ben was referring to is the tiny dash we see on every tombstone on display in any local graveyard. The dash between your birth date and expiration date. For example, if I were to die today, my tombstone would read like this: 1979 – 2011 (1979 “dash” 2011).

A great way to describe this dash is through this pithy little saying by Eric J. Aronson:

“On your tombstone there will be two dates, the date you were born and the date you died. That little, insignificant line between those two dates – that dash-is your life!”

That little, insignificant line is all that you and I will be remembered by at our respective funerals. No statues. No parades. No large crowds. Just a dash.

This can be the most depressing thing we’ve heard all day or the most inspiring. I choose to be inspired.

For me, this dash means two things: (1) I have only today to live for and therefore must give everything I have to make making the most of every day. (2) As a Christian, I must use the “dash” of my life for a cause much greater than selfish ambition or personal gain. As a Christ-follower, I must choose to daily give myself up for others.

Why?!

Because this is exactly what Christ did.

So, how then do we – mere mortals – give our lives for others? How do we make our “dash” count?

Here are some things that come to my mind:

• By daily investing time in someone.
• By weekly giving some time to help those much more unfortunate than we are.
• By pursuing worthy goals that place the good of others above the good of “me.”
• By actively listening when others are talking.
• By keeping the promises and contracts we make.
• By using the material things we have been given to give back to others who are not as blessed as we may be.
• By showing patience when we want to “throw in the towel” on someone else.
• By seeking out ways to serve our family members, friends and co-workers.
• By lifting up a neighbor when others are tearing them down. By seeing the good in others when it is easier to see the bad.

THIS is how we ensure that our little insignificant “dash” will make a difference for others. THIS is how we as Christians show that we have been transformed from the inside out. THIS is we how work to make a difference in the communities around us. THIS is how we make our “dash” significant.

Yet, now I am feeling incredibly convicted. I am doing very little of the above. Now the work must begin.

Here’s to making ”the dash” count… for Christ, for others.