Focus on the Dash

I was watching a movie this one time, The Angriest Man In Brooklyn. There's a scene towards the end of the movie where this old man is laying on his death bed and he's giving his son some life wisdom before he passes on and is laid to rest.

He says to his son: "On my tombstone, there will be two dates, the date of my birth and the date of my death. In between those two dates, there'll be a dash... I never knew till now, it’s not the dates that matter…
It’s the dash"

And this got me thinking, we've been taught all our lives to focus on the dates so much that we don't even notice the dash. I mean, every year you celebrate your birthday. Most of us make a spectacle... we buy cakes, cook extra nice food, go out on dates. Don't get me wrong, the dates are important, no doubt. And that's why we focus on them... the date of your birth and the date of your anniversary.

But the challenge is that most of us don't even notice the dash. We only live for the dates.  We only live for our birthday and Christmas Day. As it turns out, the dash is the most important thing because it represents what you did with your life. I also never knew till now that it’s not the dates that matter… it’s the dash.

You were born in 1969 and you die in 2024. In between those two dates, what did you do with your life?
Who did you help?
What was your contribution to your family?
How have you made the world a better place?
How did you contribute to your workplace or your community?

If you cease to exist today, what will you be remembered for?

Aside from eating and breathing, why do you exist?

Are you fulfilling your purpose?
If you don't know what your purpose is, have you even tried to find out?

I mean, most of us are still kinda young and vibrant. We still have a good few years ahead of us, God willing. So what could we do to make the dash fruitful? In what ways can we still add value to the world? What skills do you have that you can use to contribute positively to the world?

Think about your family. What could you do to make life a little easier for the next generation, your children, your cousins, your wife, your husband, your parents? How are you making their lives worth living? How are you contributing to their lives?

We face so many challenges in our communities.  How can we get together with our neighbors and make the changes that need to happen?

And I'm guilty of it too. It's easy to point the finger at other people and ask what they're doing with their lives. It's much harder to look inwards. And so we turn to Ezekiel 36:26. The Bible says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

And so friends, that should be our prayer from time to time, that God should touch our hearts and help us to think about the dash, and help us to think about our lives and decide how we will contribute to the world, to the community, and to our families.

Remember, it's not the dates on your tombstone that matter. It's the dash. It's the life you've lived in between those two dates. Your life is not over just yet. You still have an opportunity to contribute. Make your dash meaningful.