[You may listen to a recording of this song here. A free PDF of the lead sheet is available here.]
When you die, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?
Precious memories for your friends and family
Or relief that you’re no longer there?
Will the faith you’ve shared bring them comfort
Or your hopelessness cause them more grief?
When you die, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?
When you pass away, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?
Will your words continue to encourage
Or the harm they’ve engendered linger on?
Do your sermons tell of God’s Kingdom
While your actions point the other way?
When you pass away, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?
When you depart this life, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?
Will the good you’ve planted grow like flowers
Or the problems you’ve sown spread like weeds?
Is your life well invested in others
Or will your influence die at your death?
When you depart this life, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?But what will you leave behind?
About this Song:
There are two songs I want at my funeral–other than a few favorite hymns. One is Chi Coltrane’s “Go Like Elijah.” I doubt that Chi has no idea who I am or would have any interest in coming to sing at my funeral, even if she’s still alive at the time. So I’ll just leave a CD of the song where my wife can find it.
This song is the other one. Unfortunately I won’t be physically up to doing to it at my funeral. So I recently spent quite a while making a selfie-video of this song for use at my funeral and timing and adding the lyrics tot the bottom of the scream like closed captioning.
This song was a challenge to write. Among other things, I was hard pressed to find and fit synonyms for “die” into the song’s rhythm in the second and third stanzas. I got rid of the original fourth stanza because the song was long enough without it. However, the PDF of the lead sheet still contains the fourth stanza.
Enough about all of that. What’s the point of this song?
We’re all going to die, and each of us will leave something behind. Some people will barely be missed. The death of others may even be a relief to their survivors. How sad.
As Christians, however, we have the opportunity to leave so much more than material goods. If our lives are filled with love, kindness, consideration, generosity, and so many more Christian virtues than I can begin to list, we will continue to live in the memory of others in a good way.
But how would we feel if we knew that all we would be remembered for was hatred, nastiness, selfishness, violence, or any of an endless list of other negative, sinful characteristics?
Very few people are remembered throughout the centuries. Probably only the very finest people–and the most wicked.
Why waste the opportunity to be remembered approvingly? That’s something each of us can do with God’s help.
Your comments are always welcome.
I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.
I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.
Best regards,
Roger
Links you might be interested in:
As I Come Singing. . . 
