My Way

My Way

Frank Sinatra wasn’t the first to sing it, and he never like the song, but he still dubbed it his ‘national anthem’. For thirty years, no performance of his was complete without him singing, ‘My Way’. The song, as he sang it, of a life lived hard, through laughter, tears, love and loss, without an apology, was Sinatras’s biography. Those five words, “I did it my way” summed up his life.

And, it seems, not only his, for it is a favourite song at the funerals of people. When released in 1969 it spent 75 weeks in the Top 40, and reached the No. 5 slot in the charts.

Final Curtain

‘My Way’ has Sinatra facing death, ‘the final curtain’, dismissing his ‘few regrets’, scorning the person who kneels and prays, and finding amusement as he looks back on the highs and lows of life. In reality, Sinatra’s final words on May 14, 1998 were “I’m losing it.” He had promised that he would see in the year 2000, but it wasn’t to be.

As a child he avidly listened to music. But the man who had so passionately sung about love, found it elusive himself. The singer who entertained millions struggled through life. He said, “The battle I had with myself began to take its toll. I found myself needing pills to sleep, pills to get started in the morning and pills to relax during the day.” Though he never trusted in or called out to God, strangely he still hoped for heaven: on his gravestone he had the words, ‘The best is yet to come.’

The lyrics of ‘My Way’ appear to be bold and brave, but in reality, reveal someone burying his head in the sand concerning his life, and the prospect of the future. Sadly, the song expresses the reflections of people who have kept God at a distance.

God’s Way

These sentiments are in stark contrast to those written 3,000 years ago by a shepherd boy who was to become king. They, too, are sung each day across the world in churches and at funerals. It is a song which will not die: ‘The Lord’s my Shepherd; I shall not want.’ The song, taken straight from the Bible, honestly confronts the reality that to face death or eternity we need God.

Instead of trying to brush our sins under the carpet, we see that God still cares for us and loves us. Jesus, speaking about Himself said, “I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Jesus died paying the penalty for our sin, so that we could be forgiven. Still today, He is willing to provide for us and protect us. He will take us through life, death and then into eternity with Him if we trust Him. The short psalm teaches that He will restore our souls. It says that those who trust God know Him as their shepherd, their guide and their host ‘in the house of the Lord forever.’

God has taught us in the Bible that it is appointed for every person to die once, and after that we will ‘stand in the dock’ and face judgement. It will be no defence to say “I did it my way.” The issue will be, did we ‘do it’ God’s way? Whatever anyone says, the Bible teaches that not everyone will go to heaven. Heaven or hell for us will depend on whether our wrong has been forgiven and we have been made right with God. Only the risen, living Jesus, the Good Shepherd, can wash away all that condemns us, and give us life with Him both now and for ever. Heaven is not a reward, but a gift. Hell is for those who refuse the gift of eternal life which Jesus offers.

So which is it for you: ‘I did it my way’, or ‘The Lord is my shepherd’? Your answer indicates where you will spend eternity.

Will you read again Psalm 23 on which the song ‘The Lord’s my Shepherd’ is based, and ask Jesus to become your Lord and Shepherd, your Saviour and Friend? He will give you Himself, and make you His own. He will help you walk with Him through life and death and into eternity.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his names’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.