Being remembered after death

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 1:14).

A poem that has stuck with me throughout the years is "Ozymandias of Egypt" by Shelley. It reads as follows:

"I MET a traveler from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

When I read these verses, I picture a barren wasteland stretching to the horizon. In the midst of this parched desolation, all we find are the legs of a statue sticking up from the sand, broken off at the knees; beside them lies the proud head of the long-dead king, his face pitted by years of wind-driven grit. Ozymandias was quite proud of his accomplishments—yet all that remains of his kingdom are the pieces of one lonely, time-forgotten statue. How very sad.

Shelley wrote this poem to warn us about the foolishness of pride. We can get pretty impressed with ourselves—Most Valuable Player, head cheerleader, school Valedictorian, general manager of the company, owner of the most expensive house in the neighborhood. But how long will these achievements last? After you’ve graduated, won’t some other student eventually set a new record that eclipses yours? When you are retired, will your former employees still follow the procedures that you established? Will the family who buys your house keep it decorated the way you did? How many times have you seen a little plaque honoring the name of a person now deceased, and you have no idea who they were or what they did? For all the effort you have put into excelling, how will you be remembered when you are gone?

Solomon, blessed by God with great wisdom, looked at all the ways people try to fill life with meaning and concluded that they all come to nothing. Only dedication to God provides lasting meaning, because God lives forever and it is only through Him that we can live beyond the grave. Only the Lord can save us from being forgotten by the passage of time.