A Living Eulogy

Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that pre-approves every welcome joke and sometimes channels Mitch Hedberg.

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

~ Romans 12:10

Most people you have influenced in a positive way will never tell you. That’s a true but sad fact.

Over the past twenty years, I’ve lost a number of friends and some of them were mentors. (By “lost,” I mean they left this earth.)

One of the things I’m thankful for is that before they passed through the veil, I made a point to tell them how much they helped me.

Years ago, the late Peter Lord visited a fellowship that I was a part and delivered an interesting talk.

His subject was eulogies.

Eulogies happen after a person dies. Everyone who knew the deceased reflects back on his or her life and begins to rehearse all the good memories.

That’s great, but it does nothing for the person being eulogized since they aren’t physically present to hear it all.

So Lord (Peter, that is, not ours) proposed that we eulogize people while they are still living.

What a concept?

He then picked someone in the room and had them stand in the front. We’ll call the person “Jill.”

The rest of the believers in the fellowship began speaking about Jill as if this was her official eulogy.

As Jill heard numerous effusive words of gratefulness, compliments, funny memories, how Jill impacted them, Jill was greatly moved.

Others who shared and heard were moved as well.

To eulogize means “to speak well of,” “to praise,” or “to extol.”

The word “blessing” carries the same idea.

Three Greek words in the New Testament are translated “blessing” or “blessed” or “bless” in our English Bibles.

• (eulogētos) which means “well spoken of” or “praised.”
• (eulogeō) which means “to speak well of” or “to praise.”
• (eulogia) which means “praise” or “fine speaking.”

Now you know where “eulogy” comes from.

We live in day where criticizing and speaking ill of others is both encouraged and celebrated.

Tragically, “Christians” are often the ones who often engage in this kind of ugly behavior toward fellow believers.

(I sought to remedy this in ReGrace, by the way. But it doesn’t appear that enough Christians have read it yet.)

Here’s an exercise.

Consider the people who have impacted your life.

Why not eulogize them now instead of waiting until they’re buried?

Since all humans need encouragement and affirmation, why not tell them about the influence they’ve had on you now?

The nature of God’s enemy is to accuse, speak ill of, and to criticize. (For this reason, Scripture call him the “slanderer” and “the accuser of the brethren”).

The nature of God is the opposite.

He blesses, speaks well of, and encourages.

This week, take your cues from God, and begin making it a habit in your life.

P.S. In answer to someone’s question, no one has yet come forth to record the rewritten version of “Stairway to Heaven.” If someone is working on doing it the specific way I’ve requested, I’d love to hear from them.

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