What Will My Life Be Remembered For?

I wrote this song when I was in my 20s, but from the perspective of an older man who nearing the end of life — or having a mid-life crisis — who wishes he had lived life differently.  I thought of it in connection with a post on Wednesday at Christianity 201, and decided to run the lyrics here…

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The time has come to look around
Just before the daylight ends
Wish I could have accomplished more
The life I lived seems empty
Now I wish it had been full
What will my life be remembered for?

Some men have built great buildings
Some men have written songs
Others were heroes in a war
I’m not a writer or inventor
Nor a teacher or a preacher (so tell me)
What will my life be remembered for?

Some men have found diseases’ cures
Others ways to lighten loads
Some gave leadership, and more
Doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs
I’m neither one of these (so help me)
What’ll my life be remembered for?

Society bears the mark of ones
Who contributions made
To boldly go where no man’s gone before
Butchers, bakers, candle-makers
Libraries list their names (but not mine)
What’ll my life be remembered for?

Some men make it in Who’s Who
While others write on walls
While astronauts and pilots higher soar
The Guinness Book of Records
Shows what other men have done (but not me)
What will my life be remembered for?

If I could leave a painting
Or a book or an idea
Or maybe sail uncharted shores
Entertainers, living legends
Athletes, immortalized
No famous quotation have I to share
So what’ll my life be remembered for?

I’d like to be in pictures
And no introduction need
And give of my time, talents, wealth and more
The hour glass runs out of sand
No moments for me
A lonely poor man cries out loud
“What’ll my life be remembered for?”

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…Are we depressed yet? It’s a very sad song to be sure, and it’s actually one of two that I wrote around the same time; but it also serves as an admonition to try to make our lives count in some measure. We’re not all going to be astronauts, or have monuments erected to our memory, or have a page on Wikipedia, but I believe each of us longs to realize some expression of our significance. There’s a chorus to the song that just repeats the title three times, but after the final chorus — and this is a seven verse song, remember — the tempo actually picks up a bit and a new chorus kicks in:

If you had to do again, say…
Would you do it a different way?
What’ll your life be remembered for?

I always tell people to think in terms of the symbol of the cross. The vertical line can represent the depth of our relationship to Christ, and the horizontal line can represent the ways in which that relationship touches others. We are responsible for the depth of our ministry and God is responsible for the breadth of our ministry. If the depth is there, it will naturally spill over and touch other lives. Questions of significance and purpose will fade, and there will be no room for depression or midlife crisis to set in.

Once again, here’s the link to the C201 piece, and also a link to a similar item from Tuesday at C201 which ends with the song God of Our Yesterdays.

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