When I was battling cancer, there was a topic that frequently crossed my mind, but I did not want to discuss it. Frankly, I did not appreciate it when others raised the issue with my wife, Terri, or I. We were so deep into survival mode, the last thing I wanted to talk about was the d-word – death. You see I was swimming for my life. Pausing to consider that I might not make it to shore seemed so counter productive. “I need to keep on swimming as fast as I can. Faster now. Faster.”
Yet Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, taught us a contrary approach to our own deaths. “It is better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting, for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Death doesn’t go away because we refuse to think about it. Solomon is suggesting that whether we live seventy more years, or seventy more hours, we should be preparing for the next life, and living each day as though it was our last.
*For more on how to know if you belong to Christ – click here.
