Alexander the great made 3 requests for his funeral:
The king asked his generals to fulfill his following three wishes:
- My physicians must carry my body alone.
- I want the path leading to my grave to be strewn with gold, silver, and precious stones that are in my treasury while my body is being carried to be buried.
- My third and last wish is that both my hands be kept dangling out of my coffin.
Can any one ‘prolong’ life?
https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/
I ‘age’ this share by the individuals discussed above. But, in truth we all have numbered days.
Someone once said that there are no u-hauls behind hearses. The implication is that you can’t take it with you when you die. There’s a story of a man who tried. When the doctors told him he had a short time to live, he converts some of this cash into gold bricks, puts them in a suitcase and instructs that this suitcase should be buried with him. When he approaches the pearly gates carrying the suitcase, St. Peter stops him and asks to look inside the suitcase. The angel Gabriel asks, “What’s in the suitcase?” “Pavement,” replies St. Peter. The story illustrates that in heaven what we consider to be wealth on this earth is really nothing. Heaven’s streets are paved with gold. That would be the equivalent of us finding some kind of value in asphalt or concrete chunks here on earth. We spent a lot of time trying to get things on this earth. We spend a lot of time working to get more and more and more stuff that we just don’t need. If you don’t believe it, take a look at what happens when a person dies without an heir. A lawyer has to come in, open up the house, and sell off all the belongs to settle the estate. Thousands and thousands of dollars worth of stuff–sometimes still in boxes–is sold for pennies on the dollar. An entire lifetime of obtaining things and the only thing that happens is that strangers come in to pick over the possessions a giant yard sale. This passage tells us that we are to be content with what we have. We should be content with food and clothing. As long as our needs are met on a daily basis, that’s really all we should ask for. Everything else is just bonus stuff and if we are spending time away from our families, if we’re spending time focusing on getting rather than focusing on living, then we’re being very foolish because we can’t take it with us. When the end comes, all the stuff that we bought stay right here our closets or our garages. While we’re on this earth we need to make the right choices and be sure that we are able to be content with what we have. Then we may end up with few things that we want.
And we pray:
Father, I thank You for everything. I know sometimes I may seem discontent because there are things that I think that I want, things I think that I need, but the truth is I’m happy with my life. I’m happy with what You’ve done for me. I’m happy with my family, with my job, with the things that I have. I’ve seen what happens when you have too much stuff and I don’t want that. When I get greedy you remind me that I have everything that I need and most of what I could ever want. I thank You Lord. Amen.