Begin With This End In Mind…

Stephen R. Covey wrote The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The second habit impressed me the most, “Begin with the end in mind.” He illustrates it with an exercise picturing your own funeral. Who will be there and what will they be saying about you? For Covey, starting with this in mind will guide you in a successful life.

I find that exercise too shallow. The exercise I use on a daily basis is found in Hebrews 4:13:

“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

I continually keep in mind the end that someday I will stand naked before the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God who revealed Himself in His self-attesting Bible. I’d rather die alone, despised and derided by man, than displease God.

The funeral exercise makes us mindful of other’s opinion of ourselves. Knowing we will stand naked and exposed to God Almighty puts an eternal and sobering perspective on “beginning with the end in mind.”