Thought for the Day

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
Monday, June 28th, 2010

I went to the funeral last Wednesday of a better man than me.

Now, I don’t rate myself with a number on a scale and then note other peoples’ scores when attending or officiating at their funerals. Sometimes, though, you hear an account of a person’s life and attributes – ringing true to the much or the little you knew them yourself - which makes you wonder how you’ll ever muddle through. You’d certainly never manage that!

It’s not a question of time and relative age, Sure, my generation is only now beginning to feel its aches and pains and is not ready to move on - not by a long shot – but the foundation for what this man had built in his family and ministry and within his own soul was founded at a much younger age than I am now. Those opportunities, even in early middle-age, are now lost to me.

Yes – I attended the funeral of a better man than me.

Jesus said ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged’. We are judged, though – justly or unjustly – by others. Sometimes it’s merely enough to stand in the shadow of people who made better use of their gifts than we have. In the light of better lives than ours we feel the sting of our inadequacy.

Now there are, in fact, millions of better people than me. Ask my wife.

Because the better man can never be me, all I can do is to utter a word of thankfulness for the lives of others lived well and look again at the time and the space that are allotted to me.

Some conversations will never take place unless I initiate them. Forgiveness and reconciliation may not happen until this half-good human picks up the telephone. Strangers will not be welcomed in my neighbourhood or church until this bog-standard individual musters up the courage to step outside his small circle and engage with them

It’s not a competition.

In the best of worlds, beautiful lives would provoke our hunger to make more of what we wake up with every morning.



Audio is available for a limited time HERE. TFTD begins at 1:19.56 - about halfway along the audio bar.