The Dash Days are the most important

The Dash days and birthdays

Have you ever been to a cemetery? Please, I don’t wish to remind you of the painful exits of your loved ones, friends and colleagues – that’s not the intention of this post. And I’m sincerely sorry for your loss. Kindly read on.

We bother so much about our birthdays. Don’t get me wrong – birthdays are great and worth celebrating. A person’s death is also worth mourning, and the bereaved should be allowed to metabolise his or her grief. But is there a day we often give less attention to?

The wise man in Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 2 says this “You learn more at a funeral than at a feast. After all, that’s where we’ll end up. We might discover something from it”.

Focus your attention on the last sentence in that verse. What will you discover from attending a funeral or visiting a graveyard? You’ll discover that there’s something very particular that is always written on the tomb of the deceased.

Yes, you’ll find the birthday and the death day. But is that all? Nope. In-between both days is a big DASH (or hyphen). Yes, that is the thing to discover from a funeral. The Dash actually stands for the most important day. In fact, it stands for the most important days; the days the deceased walked and lived on the face of this planet.

Those are the days that everyone in attendance remembers. Parents can recall birthdays, the first cry and all the events surrounding our birth. Close friends can recall the final days at home or on the hospital bed before death came knocking.

But what will the rest of the world remember you for? Your Dash days. How well you lived them, the impact you made in their lives. Most people may forget what you said, but they won’t forget how you made them feel.

The songwriter wrote, “Only remembered by what WE HAVE DONE”. Not your death day, and certainly not your birthday. But the days you lived – the things you did, the love you showed, the care you gave, the help you rendered, the sick you visited, the hungry you fed, the discouraged you encouraged, the widow you made feel better, the prisoner you cared for, the course of God you championed, the souls you won and nurtured for Christ and the impact you made on the world generally. Those are the things that count.

We celebrate birthdays and mourn death day. But people will always remember our dash days.

So, how are your dash days going, and what are you going to do with the days left?

If I were you, I’ll start with God, then I’ll proceed to do things that will improve the lives of those around me. I’ll love, forgive, care, teach, pray, evangelise, chase my dreams, work hard and I’ll smile.