I'm Just Saying

“This is what comes AFTER the DASH!!!”

                                          “I’m Just Sayin’”

                                                                 by Alan P. Scaglione

So I had a few days off this week. I get more vacation time than my wife. Something she does NOT appreciate.
She’s been working for the same family run company for over 30 years, and she gets 3 weeks vacation! That’s it!
I have been working for my corporate giant for 5 years and get—6 weeks!
She is NOT amused!
I, on the other hand… have learned to enjoy a day off here and there…even IF she can’t be there with me!
Hey…somebody’s gotta enjoy it—why not me?
Back to the days off.
I spent them interviewing some of Xulon Press Publishing’s most successful authors.
I am doing a series of articles for them spotlighting our successful authors.
The purpose of the spotlight is to inspire and encourage new authors by the stories of our successful authors.
I met with an author who has sold over 500,000 copies of a children’s book.
I interviewed an author who watched her son be put in jail for a murder he didn’t commit.
Another author wrote about her brother’s visit to heaven.
Still another is a sports enthusiast- writing about the Sports Greats of Yesteryear.
Then there’s the author who wrote a book for women battling breast cancer- sharing how she survived!
It was an exciting two days of asking questions and hearing stories, drilling down til we struck oil!
We felt the presence of the Lord as we talked about what inspires them and what their relationship with Christ means to them.
They all shared the one experience in their life that changed their life.
It amazed me how honest and “real” they were—I wept with a few as they talked about God’s saving mercy.
It was a heartfelt, spirit filled, life changing moment for me…and I was humbly honored to be interviewing God’s authors.
We started the interview with a set of questions I had sent them beforehand- I called them IceBreakers – meant to get them thinking about what I needed.
I had a list of 5 questions.
The last one for each of them was one that my wife had questioned “honey, why are you asking that? Just doesn’t seem like it’s a good question?”
Let me go on record with saying, “My wife is usually right about everything—I hate to admit it – but, she is!”
Well…..NOT THIS TIME!
They LOVED the question!
In fact, they said they asked friends, called family, prayed about it, laughed about it, wrote a song about it, even had written a play about it!
So there!! Sometimes, my wife is NOT always right! LOL!
Here’s the question:
“What would you want written on your gravestone?”
Just a simple question—that speaks volumes.
It just asks, “when all is said and done, and your life is summed up on a Twitter amount of words—what do you want it to say?”
They wept; they laughed; they said it caused all kinds of conversation!
And they said…”this was my favorite question of all!”
And their answers?
They were varied… from the spiritual(Proverbs 3:5-6), to the funny(So far…So good!), to the heartstrings plucking(She loved!)

Each came with a story of why they had chosen this one line to sum up their life; all came with a tear, a laugh, a memory, a longing!

And they all said, in their own words, ”we are all here, in this life, for but a moment, a vapor, and then we are gone!”

I mentioned to a few the story of “living in the Dash!”

The Dash being ….  Born 1950 – Died 2012!

It’s that DASH in the middle…where all the life is lived!

The scripture says in James 4:14 “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away!”

No promise of how long we get…but just that we do “get” the Dash!

So??? What would you want YOUR gravestone to say?

Until Next Time

I’m Just Sayin’…

Brother “A”

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