Learning What's Really Important (Sermon: Ecc. 3:9-15)

The first church I ever served full-time, tasked me with visiting the shut-ins and the sick. As a result, I constantly faced death. I watched families say good-bye to their loved ones for the last time. I listened as people recounted their lives that were now spent. As a young man just out of college, it was all a lot to process and deal with. I learned a lot during this time and I was forced to grow up fast. Still, in the midst of all of my dismay at the harsh reality of death and dying, I learned a value lesson about perspective.

The seniors that I spent my time with viewed life through different glasses than anyone I knew my own age. We were all concerned with what our salaries would be, what type of car we could afford to drive, how nice our house would be—in a nutshell we thought about success as defined by a greedy materialistic world. Those that were dying seemed to think about only two things: their relationship with God and their family. As I prepared to preach some of their funerals, I realized that although I had spent hours visiting with them, listening to their stories, and asking questions, I didn’t even know what many of them did for a living. I didn’t know where they had previously lived, what kind of cars they had driven, or even what social circles they had ran in. But I could tell you the shoe size of some of their grandchildren. I knew when they had joined the church and when their children had been saved. I knew these things not because I asked, but because in every instance, these were the things that were dear to those that were dying—the things they most wanted to talk about. These were the only things that mattered at this point in their life; aren’t these the only things that matter at any point in our life.

If only we could gain the perspective of these wise veterans of life, while we were young. Someone once said: “wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others.” Have you ever said to yourself, “I wish I knew then what I know now?” I want to ask you to consider that maybe if we listen to those who have gone before us, we can know now some of what we will know then.