2 Samuel 18:1-18

“Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillar for himself, which is in the King’s Valley. For he said, ‘I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.’ He called the pillar after his own name. And to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.” (2 Samuel 18:18, NKJV)

There is a desire in each human to want to be remembered. The older we get the more we realize how brief life is. How will people remember us? What will they say about us at our funeral? What defines us? In the end, we will each be remembered for the choices we’ve made—whether good or bad.

Absalom wanted to make a monument to himself. He built a physical structure so that people would remember him. But how is he remembered today? Absalom’s Monument no longer exists—or at least no one knows where it is. Today Absalom is not remembered for the pillar that he built but for the choices that he made. He killed his half-brother Amnon; he rebelled against God’s anointed king; he defiled his father’s concubines; he died in a battle against his own people. What a sad legacy!

God has given us the power of choice. In taking an extreme position regarding God’s sovereignty, some theologians want to stomp out man’s freedom to choose. But God has given us this right, and He respects it. What choices will define us? What choices will we make today? Will they lead us closer to Christ, or will they lead us away from Him? After we’re gone, how will we be remembered?