Pathways Press.com

Written
by Ian Wooldridge, a contemporary pastor and guide on the Dwell app.

The philosopher and master teacher of the Way of Jesus, Dallas Willard, once said, “The main thing God gets out of your life is into the achievements you accomplish. It’s the person you become.” Our world is so accustomed to measuring value, worth, and esteem on the outward and the externals…But what if actual success looked a whole lot differently than how the world would define success? You see, in the ancient mind, to be successful had more to do with virtue than it did with talent or skill. The writer David Brooks differentiates between what he calls “resume virtues” and “eulogy virtues.”  What if the great invitation before you and me as followers of Jesus is to greatly consider our “eulogy virtues?” That is, how we want to be remembered when we die? Rarely, if ever, are people’s accomplishments praised at their funeral. Usually, it’s the kind of person who they were and became that gets remembered. How do you want to be remembered? These are the kind of things that God sees, honors, and blesses. And we have the power today, through our choices, to give shape to these eulogy virtues. Ironically enough, we do our best work and produce our best accomplishments when we remember that our heart, not our hands, is where we must first invest.

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  [1 Samuel 16:7]