Writing a spiritual will
This is week 7 of our study using the book Pilgrimage into the Last Third of Life by Jane Marie Thibault and Richard L. Morgan
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7).
In the last month of her life, my mother wrote a letter to each of her children and grandchildren. Her legacy to me, she wrote, was the memory of the simple, happy days we spent together on my backyard patio watching the squirrels play and listening to the bird’s songs.
“Behold each sunrise and sunset,” she wrote. “Cherish all the beautiful things in nature that God has created.” She reminded me “to love always because love is the most important thing.”
Mom needed to write that letter, and I needed to read it. I keep it still in a special place and pull it out to read every once in a while.
Mom didn’t know that she was writing a “spiritual will.” She had read no books about spiritual wills, had not talked with any experts on how to do it, didn’t even know the term. She was simply following her instinct to tuck me in before she said, “good night.”
In Gateway 7 of Pilgrimage into the Last Third of Life, authors Richard Morgan and Jane Marie Thibault remind us that no matter how many materials goods we have or do not have to pass on to our families, our greatest gift will always be our values, life lessons, and wisdom. One way to do that is by writing a spiritual will. It can take the form of a letter, like my mother’s and the one Richard wrote to his grandchildren on pages 136-7, or it can be something more formal. It can be an audio or video recording or even a scrapbook.
“no matter how many materials goods we have or do not have to pass on to our families, our greatest gift will always be our values, life lessons, and wisdom.”
In “Spiritual Wills and Legacy Projects,” from the Spirituality and Health website, author Ruth Wilson describes her own process of writing a spiritual will (also often called an ethical will or legacy will).
Wilson says she started by asking herself some questions:
- What do I love most about life?
- What blessings have I received?
- What am I most thankful for?
- What hopes and dreams have helped to shape my life?
That exercise gave her an outline of sorts. She would include in her will what blessings she was thankful for, the values and beliefs she held dear, the constants she had found throughout her life, and her hopes and wishes for the people she loved.
Wilson says the process of writing a spiritual not only gave her something to pass on to her family, it also gave her the opportunity to conduct an informal review of her life.
Author Uli Chi invites us to see the legacy we leave through the lens of wisdom. “Wisdom,” he says, “helps us make sense of our lives.” Chi, an affiliated professor at Fuller Seminary, believes wisdom “enables us to see meaning and purpose where we otherwise might see only randomness and chaos.
In his article “How Can I Think Wisely About my Legacy,” Chi reminds us that each one of us is “a unique occasion for God’s gracious work.”
“Wisdom helps us make sense of our lives.”
Chi offers three steps in the process of reflecting on our lives through the lens of wisdom:
- Mine your experience – see your history as a treasure you need to excavate to recover the meaning of your lived experience and history
- Develop your imagination – by immersing yourself in great writing and art, through a biblical perspective
- Involve others – because wisdom is fundamentally a communal experience
We encourage you to begin writing your own spiritual will by searching the internet for the terms “spiritual will,” “ethical will,” or “legacy will.” to get started. And read the articles mentioned on this page in their entirety.
Back to introduction to the study where you will find links to each gateway.
The Wisdom Years 