Live Like They Are Dying
"Ye shall not certainly die." We read that one sentence and if we know anyone at all about the Bible, we know that this was the statement that the serpent made to Eve when she contemplated taking of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. "Ye shall not certainly die." She believed his lie and ate the fruit. But Eve did die. Spiritually, she died that day; later, she died physically. Her sin immediately separated her from her God and she found herself in desperate need of a Redeemer.
Live Like They Are Dying
The idea of death seems ludicrous to us. We are certainly taken by surprise when person dies, even if they've had a concluding illness and we were told death was imminent. We all the time hold out a hope, to the end, that is wholly unreasonable in the face of medical logic and sometimes even in the face of their symptoms. We deny it. Denial is even a stage of grief; we just can't certainly grasp that they are truly gone and will never come back. It's as though the very idea is just ludicrous. It commonly happens to other people; it's unreasonable to us. We think, "They shall not certainly die!" But, they often do die; and it's not certainly so mysterious.
When our son was deployed to Iraq the first time, we had to face a reality that I fought with all my might. We had to sign Power of Attorney papers to cover the affairs of our 19-year-old son because he might not come home. We had to face the daily news and hear how many Marines died that day, if any, knowing that some of them were in the same platoon as our son. The idea that my son could die was unthinkable, yet it became a very real possibility. Because my daughter was also a nautical at that time, I learned from her that if he was injured, we would get a phone call. But if he was killed, we would have Marines, in their full dress blues, at our door. One day during his deployment, I was out running errands. As I turned onto our road on my way home, I realized with a start that the Suv in front of me had a license plate that said Navy - it was an lawful Us Navy Suv. The Marines are a agency of the Navy. I knew that the nautical Corps did not have chaplains of their own; they had Navy chaplains. My heart sank and my hands began to shake uncontrollably. As I followed them, they pulled into my closest neighbor's driveway, right beside my house. I was not encouraged because people had often mistaken that driveway for ours. I parked in my driveway as fast as I could and ran into the house. Still wearing my coat, I stood by the front window where I could clearly see the Suv. I was wholly transfixed on that Suv and I felt sick. I became so nauseated that I felt like I was going to be sick. I was still shaking. For 5 full minutes, the people inside the Suv just sat there. All the windows were dark so I couldn't see them at all. While I waited and stared, I made a plan. I plainly would not respond the door. If they came to my house, I would just let the doorbell ring and not respond it. That was my clarification to perhaps hearing that my son was dead. Denial.
As soon as the plan formed in my head, the door of the Suv gradually opened. I held my breath, afraid to see who got out, but unable to take my eyes off that Suv. Finally, a man got out wearing blue jeans and a sweatshirt and went next door. No Marines were advent to my house. I collapsed at the knees and sobbed in relief. It was one of the scariest days of my life. While my relief was incredibly sweet, the reality was also brought right to my face. My son could certainly die. It was no longer unthinkable; it was reality. I was fearfully startled. I stepped up my already frequent prayers for him.
Country Music artist, Tim McGraw, sings a song called "Live Like You are Dying." The song depicts a man who, in his early 40's, is diagnosed with a serious illness. His response is to do all the things he had been putting off till he was older. The song shows how time is a gift; that the determination itself was a gift because it helped him see how short and fragile life certainly is. It helped him to embrace life and do things instead of putting them off. As Christians, we know how fragile life is. The Bible teaches us that "It is appointed unto man once to die" (Hebrews 9:27). It teaches us that there is a "time to be born and a time to die" (Ecclesiastes 3:2) Death is real; death is safe bet and death will come to everyone.
Satan's lie, "Ye shall not certainly die" is just that - a lie. It's so plausible and so much more enchanting than the reality-based alternative, that we speedily embrace the idea that we have all the time in the world. We shall not certainly die! The reality is, we shall all certainly die. It's certainly not ludicrous at all.
Because of new flooding in our part of Mn, a quantum of a road over a culvert recently washed out. A driver came upon this and discovered a 20 foot quantum of the road missing with 15 feet of flood waters below it. He called 911 and was told that they could not get there for a period of time. The man left, going on his way, leaving no warning of the missing road. Someone else man was driving along the road at 55 mph and didn't see the missing quantum of the road until it was too late. Because of the way the road dipped, it was nearly impossible to see until you were right upon it. The man's truck went right into the pit at 55 mph and he was killed. Soon, Someone else car did the same thing, but the travelers survived. They helped discover the man under the water because they realized that their car was sitting on top of Someone else one. It was quite a tragedy. My husband and I drove out to see the scene and it was very traumatic and unnerving. I didn't like being out there and wanted to leave. perhaps the man who drove away leaving no warning thought, "Surely no one will die." perhaps the man in the truck survived the impact only to drown, thinking, "I certainly won't die." He did die.
This is not a pleasant topic and I know many Christians who avoid it altogether. But, as Christians, we don't have to fear death. While we may feel, and rightly so, that we don't want to die and leave loved ones behind, our eternity is sealed and there is no personal fear for ourselves. A world without Christ - our neighbors - have no such confidence. The best they can do is hope with a worldly hope that they are "good enough" to get into Heaven. We have the occasion to show them, straight through our lives, and our words, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Send out the signal! It's urgent! The song says, "Live like you are dying." Not bad advice. As Christians we can say, "Live like they are dying," because they are.
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