What will people remember about me when I die?

Several years ago, I watched a Ted Talk by David Brooks which is titled, "Should you live for your resume...or your eulogy?". I particularly love this video because it taught me the importance of thinking about thinking in terms of how others are impacted by me. Click here to view the video.

"Adam one's motto is success, Adam two's motto is love, redemption, and return"
Have you ever felt that these two aspects of yourself are at odds? Unfortunately in our world, there is often a difference between doing things for the sake of love and doing things that will bring us success. Furthermore, sometimes the distinction between the two is so broad that we feel we cannot possibly choose. It can be simple things, little decisions that you make every day which can build into these two models of virtue. What do you chose to do when you wake up in the morning? Do you choose to think about God? It can be so hard when we are caught up in the day to day success-seeking of our lives to remember that our motto is love, redemption, and return. The only one who can give us this is God. Therefore, the time we spend trying to impress other people is really time that should be devoted to God. Again, this is hard. I know I struggle with it. David Brooks tells us that the issue with these two Adams is that they are fighting each other and we have this battle between "external success and internal value". I love the way he states this because we naturally want to be rewarded for what we have done, right? We do want people to praise our accomplishments. But it can be hard for people to praise those things that bring internal value because so often, others do not see these things.

What brings internal value?
David Brooks explains to us that the world favours Adam one because this brings economic value, the idea of "input equals output". But this is much more complex for the internal value, since here it seems like the logic does not make sense, yet when you hear him explain it, to me it makes sense in my heart. He states, "You have to give in order to receive". I think that this is so applicable to many aspects of our lives. We have to give kindness out, to get kindness back. We have to give respect, in order to be respected. Think about something in your life that you need to give more of. What is something that you are giving a lot of? For me, I think it is time. I find it hard in the hecticness of life to make quality time for friends. Sometimes, this can be as simple as remembering to send them a text wishing them good luck on a test, or reminding them that they are loved. This is time that we will never believe to be wasted, for when we love one another, we are loving God.

Let's pray on this:

God, help me to seek and grow my eulogy virtues in my daily life. Give me the courage to remember that success has many definitions, but the ones worth seeking do not involve popularity, money, or recognition. Instead, they involve YOUR love, redemption, and our return to YOU. In your mercy, keep me free from sin; protect me from all anxiety. In the name of our Lord and saviour, we pray. Amen.