By Francis Chan, from his 2008 book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
You could die before you finish reading this meditation. I could die while you’re reading it. Today. At any moment.
But it’s easy to think about today as just another day. An average day where you go about life concerned with your to-do list, preoccupied by appointments, focused on family, thinking about your desires and needs. On the average day, we live caught up in ourselves. On the average day, we don’t consider God very much. On the average day, we forget that our life truly is a vapor.
But there is nothing normal about today. Just think about everything that must function properly just for you to survive. For example, your kidneys. The only people who really think about their kidneys are people whose kidneys don’t work correctly. The majority of us take for granted our kidneys, liver, lungs, and other internal organs that we’re dependent upon to continue living.
What about driving down the road at sixty-five miles per hour, only a few feet away from cars going the opposite direction at the same speed? Someone would only have to jerk his or her arm and you would be dead. I don’t think that’s morbid; I think it’s reality.
It’s crazy that we think today is just a normal day to do whatever we want with. To those of us who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money,” James (4:13-14) writes, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
When you think about it, that’s a little unsettling. But even after reading those verses, do you really believe you could vanish at any minute? That perhaps today you will die? Or do you instead feel somehow invincible?
Frederick Buechner writes, “Intellectually we all know that we will die, but we do not really know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us. We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true. On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go on forever.”
As a pastor, I’m often called upon when life “vanishes like a mist.” One of the most powerful examples I’ve seen of this was Stan Gerlach, a successful businessman who was well known in the community. Stan was giving a eulogy at a memorial service when he decided to share the gospel. At the end of his message, Stan told the mourners, “You never know when God is going to take your life. At that moment, there’s nothing you can do about it. Are you ready?” Then Stan sat down, fell over, and died. His wife and sons tried to resuscitate him, but there was nothing they could do– just as Stan had said a few minutes earlier.
I’ll never forget receiving that phone call and heading over to the Gerlach house. Stan’s wife, Suzy, was just arriving home. She hugged me and cried. One of her sons, John, stepped out of the car weeping. He asked me, “Did you hear the story? Did you hear? I’m so proud of him. My dad died doing what he loved doing most. He was telling people about Jesus.”
I was asked to share a word with everyone gathered. There were children, grandchildren, neighbors, and friends. I opened my Bible to Matthew 10:32-33 where Jesus said: “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”
I asked everyone to imagine what it must have felt like for Stan. One moment, he was at a memorial service saying to a crowd, “This is who Jesus is!” The next, he was before God hearing Jesus say, “This is who Stan Gerlach is!” One second he was acknowledging Jesus before everyone at that funeral; a minute later, Jesus was acknowledging Stan Gerlach in heaven!
It happens that quickly. And it could happen to any of us. In the last words of Stan Gerlach, “Are you ready?”
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One day my soul must depart from this body. When will it be? In winter or summer? In town or country? During the day or night? Suddenly or with warning? Due to illness or accident? Shall I have a chance to confess my sins? Shall there be anyone with me or shall I die alone? I know none of these things. One thing only is certain, that I will die, and sooner than I would like.
Dear God, take me into your arms on that most important day. May all other days be sad, if only that day may be happy. I tremble with fear at the prospect, yet I know that you, and you alone, can save me.
Set my whole heart on your promise of heaven. Guide my feet in your ways, O Lord, that I may walk the straight paths towards eternal life. Let me cast off everything that holds me back on my journey there, so that all my strength may be directed towards that goal. Amen.
–St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Catholic Bishop, France.
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