1 QUOTE

“I am going to live until I die.”

- Frank Sinatra

1 NOTE

A few years ago I officiated a church member’s funeral. I arrived early to pray and prepare for service. The funeral director was already at the church. The man was on the younger side, friendly and chatty. He just returned from a funeral directors convention. (I didn’t know that was a thing, but funeral directors need conferences, too.) The director shared that for the first time in America, there was a new ‘most popular song played at funerals.’ I had no idea they kept stats on funeral songs. I was drawn in. I asked him about the new number one. He told me ‘Amazing Grace’ was lapped by Frank Sinatra’s ‘I Did It My Way.’ 

As I wrote two weeks ago, Genesis 2:16 ‘knowledge of good and evil’ is a Hebrew idiom. This group of words means to live independent. Children do not have ‘knowledge of good and evil’ (Deuteronomy 1:39). The elderly have lost ‘knowledge of good and evil’ (2 Samuel 19:35). God created us to be in a dependent relationship with Him. But when our first parents chose sin, we suddenly believed we can make life work without God.

I remember studying the Bible with Daniel P. Fuller when I a campus minister. One of his favorite lines was “‘I Did It My Way’ is the most heretical song in the history of the world.” This brilliant theologian taught the key to faith is believing we are sick patients and that Jesus is the Great Physician (Matthew 9:12). If we believe we are sick, we will go the doctor desperate for our health. If we believe we are sick, we will be determined, vigilant, and detailed to live out the doctor’s full prescription. And for those of us in ministry, if we believe we are sick, we will not see ministry as the opportunity to be the hero of our own story, but praying, fasting, discipling, preaching, serving and church planting is our gospel medicine.

Our family is currently watching an excellent Korean drama named Hospital Playlist. When a patient gets well, the patient gets no credit. When a life is saved, the doctor is praised, honored and celebrated, often with dramatic Korean tears. So it is in Jesus’ Kingdom! As we obey the Great Physician’s prescription, He gets the credit and we get the joy. And for the record, ‘I Did It My Way’ was not part of the funeral service. My friend lived her life God’s way!

1 QUESTION

In what area of your life are you tempted to sing, ‘I Did It My Way’?

Until Next Tuesday,

John