The Words I Would Say

These are the words I would say. My final thoughts if I could predict the moment of my physical death.

I’m not afraid to die, but I am sad for the life I would miss living because I truly love my life. Ultimately, my life will be so much better because I will be with my best friend, Jesus, but I know people will hurt when I’m gone. I want everyone in my life to know that I have nothing but love for them in my heart. I hold no resentment or unforgiveness toward anyone. I love my family and each person Jesus has brought into my life. I have been the richest person relationally. I have been loved so well in my lifetime and my only hope is that others have felt Jesus’ love through me. It’s worth being in a relationship with Jesus. He’s worth getting to know deeply and intimately. He’s all that matters. I’ll always wish I could have done more for his kingdom, seen more of his world, and loved more of his people, but I’ve tried to be faithful with what I was given. Love is all I feel and all that will remain. Jesus is faithful. My ultimate healing has finally come.

Some people might think it’s incredibly morbid to write out final thoughts, but I have found it incredibly motivating. Why do we wait until death is looming to embrace vulnerability and express our thoughts and feelings? I want the words I wrote above to be familiar to those I love and for there to be zero surprises when they read them. Thinking of final words does not steal hope for living; it actually births intention and purpose.

Words are eternal. They’ve existed since the beginning when God spoke the world into reality (Genesis 1) and at the end of time, the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come” (Revelation 22). Words have the power of life and death. The most important person historically and currently is described as the Word (John 1). If words are so important and powerful – so much so that Jesus embodies that importance and power – why wouldn’t we use them with intention, especially pertaining to the language we want others to use when summarizing our life?

A word literally created physical light. The Word was the light of the world. A word created physical life. The Word brought abundant, redeeming, eternal life. Jesus’ final words before his death were not ones of sadness or grief. They were words of victory and life. “It is finished.” He wasn’t just referring to his physical life, but also physical death. The power of sin was finished. Eternal separation was finished. Broken relationship between creation and Creator was finished. Jesus’ last words were ones of accomplishment. He had fulfilled the mission the Father had given him and these words were the purpose of his life. When we remember Jesus through Communion, we reflect on how he finished brokenness and death through the breaking of his own body and how he finished sacrificial striving through the ultimate sacrifice of his lifeblood. We remember the summary of his life through the words, “It is finished.”

My final words cannot be as powerful as Jesus’ because I am a product of the Word, not the origin or embodiment. My motivating hope is that my final words reflect the life I lived. A true summary that sounds more like a description of the Word and less like the brokenness He finished. Because if that’s the case, the words found in my death will actually be life.