What will matter in the end?

I think it was pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who advised people to regularly take a walk in a cemetery to gain humility and perspective on life. We all will end up there someday. No one has cheated death. We can't outrun, outsmart, or outperform death; we may our competitors, but not death.

So if we can't take our success with us after we die, what will matter in the end?

Yesterday, my wife and I attended the funeral of a friend's father. Joe, the deceased, read the poem to his wife many times over the course of their life together. Yesterday, she had it read one last time for us. It was a beautiful reminder for all of us that life is not about what we do, it is about who we are, and who we are becoming. A life that matters is lived inside out, from the heart.

Here's the poem, What Will Matter by Michael Josephson:

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.

All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten

will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations

and jealousies will finally disappear.

So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from

or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter?

How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought

but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success

but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned

but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity,

compassion, courage, or sacrifice

that enriched, empowered or encouraged others

to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence

but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew,

but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories

but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered,

by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.