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Sooner
or Later
Much sooner than you anticipate, you'll be the silent guest at your own funeral. No doubt there will be relatives and friends present to mourn for you, some of whom you haven't seen in years. After the preacher delivers a message in your memory, you will be taken to the cemetery, given a final farewell and buried. … The retirement for which you spent your life working will be gone forever. Remember the new car you worried about scratching? Its new owner just wrecked it!
The newlyweds who bought your house have redecorated your favorite room. Your personal belongings have been sorted and some of them discarded. The dog is making a bed out of your favorite old coat while other clothes that no one could wear (or didn't want) have been boxed up and given to charity. Personal treasures that were valuable only to you — a carefully preserved flower, lock of hair, torn picture, stained postcard — have been burned as trash. You have attended a number of funerals in your lifetime, but for some reason you just never expected to be lying in a casket yourself. You remember telling the Lord each time you thought about dying, "Not this time, Lord. Not today. Maybe tomorrow." Sooner or later everyone runs out of time. Paul states that everyone has an appointment with death and then the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). The only time you can decide whether or not your death will be a blessing is today — while you're still alive. Today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). Today is the day to do the Lord's work. "Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all of your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom" (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Sooner or later, everyone runs out of time — but no one runs out of eternity. Doesn't it make more sense to spend your time preparing for that which will not end, rather than squandering your time trying to hold on to that which will not last? Careless soul, O heed the warning, for your life will soon be gone; O how sad to face the judgment unprepared to meet thy God. Will you be prepared on the day you run out of time? |
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