It is a fact of life that one cannot be convinced that they will die one day and leave planet earth for eternal life somewhere else. If one is a saved person, they can have confidence that life on earth is not all there is and that there is something better than what we experience here. God tells us about it in many different parts of the Bible. He gives His children through Jesus many promises and assurances about the fact that heaven awaits when the time comes for a Christian to die. The big problem with most people is that they don’t really think that will happen to them. There is a great line in a country song entitled, “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” The song is written and sung by Toby Keith who passed away recently. The line says….“And I knew all my life that some day it would end…”
Most younger people think that there will be no end to their life on earth. But, as one gets older, their mortality confronts them more and more. No one lives a physical life forever.
I have heard it said that such and such a thing increases the death rate. People are warned about speeding and statistics are quoted which show that if certain speeds are exceeded that it raises the death rate by some percentage. That is not a true statement. The death rate is 100%. Everyone will die some day whether it be from speeding in a car or drinking a lot of alcohol or simply getting old enough that their old body simply doesn’t continue to function properly and shuts down.
I remember visiting a person in the hospital one time who was within only a couple of hours of dying. I witnessed to this person because they had rejected Christ all of their life. As I urged him to confess that Jesus is Lord and to dedicate the rest of his life to him, he answered this way. He said: “Preacher, I just ain’t quite ready to do that. I will do it later.” You see, even at death’s door, this person did not think that his life would end. As far as I know, this person went into eternity without knowing Jesus as his Lord and Savior. His problem was that he could not be convinced that he would ever die. It’s easy for young people to feel the same way. Being young, they feel that they are invincible and that death is way off out there somewhere but it just couldn’t be right now.
The reason the man in the hospital was willing to wait to be saved even though life would end in only a couple of hours is this: he though he would never die. And the truth is that he was right. He will never die. Once he was conceived, his soul and spirit will live somewhere forever. We were created to live forever and God provided Jesus for us so that we could live with Him in eternity. Where our hospital patient is living eternally is dependent upon what that person did with Jesus.
Life is so fragile. The Book of James records that “life is like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away”….James 4:14. Even if one lives for the seventy years the scripture speaks about, those who achieve that age will testify that it was a very short time. They can’t believe that they have progressed in life to that advanced age. It was like a vapor that came and then it was gone. Yes, life is fragile. Just about anything can take it away but yet it is handled so carelessly.
This past Saturday, a large part of the United States and World were watching when President Trump almost had his fragile life snuffed out in a moment of time. A bullet was racing toward him at around 3,000 feet per second. Every intention of ending his life violently was behind that speeding bullet. He did not know it was on its way. He was living life normally and having a great time. It could have ended tragically but he is alive today, I think, by the sheer Grace of God. One second he is about to refer to a graph during his speech and the next second he is hit by a bullet on his right ear. One half inch and he would not be headed toward the White House again. We all saw just how quickly life can end and we are thankful that he was protected. We can only assume that God has something He wants him to do in the future because without that Divine intervention, there would be no future.
So, I was reflecting on what such an experience would do to a person….any person. How would it affect the rest of their life? Would it make a person mad and drive him to revenge? Would it make a person get careless with the way they live and cause them to adopt the “eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die” approach to life? Would it cause them to become depressed and scared to live? Would they separate themselves from others? Just what would it do? Or, would such an experience make them a better person than before thankful to be alive and determined to accomplish more in the future.
Some other people, after experiencing a near death situation, will take a good look at themselves and realize that life is more than what they have been doing with the time God has granted to them. They will become a much better person as they take a good long look at themselves and conclude that some things have got to change in their lives. They would be the ones to fully know what it was that they didn’t appreciate enough. They might find themselves putting much more value on life and its opportunities than they ever did before. I think they would be much, much more thankful for all that they are and have if instant death came so near to them. They might want to treat people differently. Or, they might reconstruct their relationship to God. Family would be much more precious in only a millisecond. The value of life would increase multifold and the desire to live it right would increase by many magnitudes.
What has happened to many people in that moment when life could have ended so quickly is that this precious thing called life becomes the most valuable possession they have. No amount of money is sufficient to pay for it. No value can be placed on life that has been granted by God but which, to that point, may have been lived carelessly. All the possessions in the world suddenly become nothing to one who has been brought into touch with their own mortality. Life takes on a new perspective and a desire to make it a better life becomes paramount.
The Awareness of Mortality never dawns on many people. They just don’t think about it. I would suggest that the proper spiritual preparations be made so that if you are ever faced with something that could bring you to the end of your life, you can know for a certainty that God has it all in hand for you and that you will be with Him eternally because of your relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
