The Synopsis of Your Life

Books aren’t the only thing with a summary on the back.

Arguably the most important feature to have out of the gate while writing a book is an eye-catching synopsis. Without an intriguing summary, you lose many of your potential readers. If you’re unable to hook them, you will not secure an audience.

And yet a synopsis isn’t something unique to a novel. While books have summaries dictating what occurs in the story, did you know your life is the same? Your life has its own summary, crafted by your actions, your friends, your decisions.

The synopsis of your life is created to draw people to you, to help you accomplish your goals. It’s quite similar to a resume. Except on a resume you put work experience, while on a synopsis, you put your entire life.

What if we skip ahead?

Now I need to flash forward to a day many of you may not have thought about yet. Or maybe you have, I don’t know. The day I refer to is the day you leave this world. The day your soul departs from your flesh and goes to a new place.

At your funeral, your family, relatives, and friends will get up to deliver a eulogy about your life. To talk about what they liked and found interesting about you.

This next question may make you think: What would people say about you?

If you died today what would your best friend, your parents, your siblings, say about you?

After taking some time to consider this, what did you come up with? Loved sports, music, worked hard in school/work, invested everything in their hobby? Maybe these are some of the things that would be said.

But would you be happy with these words in your synopsis, or would you end up feeling like you’d dwelt too much on the things of this world, instead of what really mattered?

How much do we want to hear, upon our death, that “they served God with all their heart, and did everything they could to honour Him”? Would that not make our lives so much more worthwhile?

The truth is…

We don’t know how much time we have left on this earth. Decades, years, weeks? Only God knows. Thinking “I’ll serve God once I’m out of school”, or “Next year” might not cut it.

James 4:14 (NIV) says, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”

Serving God should be our priority right now, the focus of our life. An honest truth: everyone wants to leave a stamp on this world in some way. We all want to be remembered for something.

What do you want to be known for?