There’s an old saying: “We are born with nothing, and we die with nothing.”
For those of you who’ve memorized your bible (this one is for you Dwayne!), you may recognize this from Ecclesiastes 5:15: “As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came; and he shall take nothing from his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.”
Either way, I love the message behind it. To me, it means: live for people and experiences, not things.
In fact, I’d argue the modern phrasing , “we die with nothing”, isn’t entirely true.
If we’ve lived a good life, we’ll pass on surrounded by people who love us. We’ll carry with us a sense of a life well lived, one not built on the shallow weight of tangible things, but on what truly matters. When I’m breathing my last breaths, I don’t want to count the shiny objects I’ve collected. I want to recollect the many memories I’ve made with the people I love.
To me, that’s not dying with nothing. That’s dying with everything.
I think of my mother’s last weeks. She never once mentioned her belongings. She just wanted her family close. So maybe the real question isn’t what we’ll leave behind… it’s who we’re spending today with.
Let’s close the online shopping app and open the texting or phone app. Let’s put “spend time with a friend” in our shopping cart and click the fastest delivery option.
Warm regards,
Jimerson Adkins