Thought for Saturday, January 26th

January 26, 2013

The End

If today were the last day of the rest of your life, what would you do?

Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.  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.

James 4:13-14

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Hebrews 9:27-28

“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 if our lives will go on forever. ”

-       Fredrick Buechner

No one likes to really think about the futility of their existence in terms of time on this earth.   But none of us are promised tomorrow and thus some point of ceasing to exist seems inevitable.   Yet at the same time, most of us comprehend we are eternal creatures and hence even though our physical life may end we will exist for all eternity: and as Christians that means an eternity in Heaven.

So why then do we seem to focus on the precept of living like we are dying?

Not to over simplify the point, but for me the answer seems obvious: we have a limited time in this physical world before we will face our eternal existence: and in that time span of what we will call ‘life on earth’ we have limited opportunity to make an impact of eternal significance.

We work, not to be saved, but rather because we are saved and in the efforts and effects of those labors we perform we are in effect laying up for ourselves treasures in Heaven.  But even beyond the concept of amassing eternal rewards, we should desire to live as such every day so that our Heavenly Father will have reason to smile and say, ‘Well done my good and faithful servant.’

If we are doing anything less than this: are we really optimizing the potential of what, whatever is left, of our life can be?

There is a physical end to our life: but the results of that physical life will follow us into our eternal existence.

So then, does it not make some sense that we should live everyday like it could be our last?

Today’s Prayer

Father, when the end has come and all is done, may I look back and say, I did it your way.