When will you die? Not a comfortable question, is it? But how often do we openly acknowledge the white elephant of the inevitability of the impending death of each and every one of us who has ever been born? Because, let’s face it, none of us survives our centennial, generally speaking—some get even far fewer years.
“You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalms 139:15-16 NLT)
God knows our last day, but we don’t. If we’ve received a terminal diagnosis we may have an inkling, but even then we don’t know the last moment. I see all of life as a massive conveyor belt on which we all stand, occupying a position that is generally ordered by age, but on which some are occasionally bumped to the front. And we honestly don’t know exactly where we are on that timeline.
As I’ve progressed into my early sixties, examining the ages of famous people’s obituaries has become a minor preoccupation of mine. Whenever I run across an article declaring the death of yet another distinguished person from my young adulthood, I instinctively look for how old they were and a cause of death.
Why? Probably because it still amazes me how quickly I myself have progressed closer toward the terminus. And also, because these were the cool people I looked up to as a younger person myself. Now, they seem different; they’ve aged. Even if they had surgical interventions, they are a fragment of their former beautiful self. In fact, they look like what they are: a grandfather or grandmother.
This is natural; it’s the progression of the aging of our bodies. But death in itself is not natural, even though it is inevitable. Death is, in fact, our greatest enemy. It’s the one hoop through which we will all be forced to jump whether we’re ready or not—regardless of our individual accomplishment or distinction.
Yet so few of us prepare for it. Why is this?!
Fear or uncertainty, I suppose. Or unresolved personal guilt. Our world shame-facedly proclaims there is either nothing beyond physical death, or that we cannot know for certain there is. Which places us in the very untenable position of not being able to prepare for it—because how can you prepare for something if you don’t know what you’re preparing for, or even if it exists?
That is why our world’s message is so insidious. It handicaps us from acting to resolve the very dilemma we’re in!! And what does our world do to the warnings and instructions of Jesus Christ, which—if taken seriously and acted on can prepare us for crossing over? It belittles and ridicules them, so we disqualify from serious consideration the only genuine way to prepare! Wow—talk about delusional thinking!!
But what did Jesus Christ say?
Jesus said, what good does it do if you gain the whole world and lose your soul (you’ve not dealt with the internal issues—you’ve not repented of the way you’ve lived and the wrong you’ve done). He said to make peace with our opponent (is this our consciences that condemn us?) before we get to the Judge of our souls and we’re thrown into prison to pay for each and every guilty deed we’re guilty of. He said not to be afraid of any human being, regardless of what pain (or even death) they threaten us with, but to be afraid of God—to recognize that sinning against Him has far more terrible consequences than anything humans can do to us. Do we believe this? Do we live as if we do?
He also said that faith in who He is (the Son of God become a human being) and the forgiveness He’s earned on our behalf through His death and resurrection is our only access to God. He’s the way to God, the truth of God, and the life in God—because He is the Word (the human revelation and expression) of God Himself. He also said no one can come to God except through Him.
Not very inclusive, is it? It’s actually totally exclusive of any other attempt to win God’s forgiveness and favor, yet it is also infinitely inclusive because the only requirement for saving our soul and preparing for the end of this life’s conveyor belt is faith in Jesus Christ.
So what do you have to do to be saved—to look forward with hope and happy expectation, instead of fear and dread, as our moment of falling off of life’s timeline approaches? We have to believe on Jesus Christ, and act in faith on that belief—repent of our sinful life and consciously turn away from it.
That’s it; that’s all we have to do! Yet it can be incredibly hard too. Not because we don’t want to look forward to an eternal reward with joy in Christ, but because it will require a sacrifice; a giving up.
We may have to give up friends and intimate relationships who won’t join us. We may have to experience the disruption of our lives. We may have to forgo pleasures we used to run after. But once we recognize how valuable having a soul forgiven and right with God is, we will be unwilling to trade anything else for it.
We’ll be like the guy in Jesus’ story who found a huge treasure buried in a field, and sold everything he had to buy that field, because—what good will it do us if we gain everything this world has to offer, but lose our soul?!
Dear Lord God,
Help us see clearly and not be tricked into thinking “this” is forever. Help us make peace with You through faith in Your Son Jesus before it’s too late—because there is a “too late.” Help us be able to look forward with faith and great joy to the future beyond, because of what Jesus Christ and what He’s done for us! Amen.
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