Pastor and gospel enthusiast Tullian Tchividjian says that "daily Christian living is daily Christian dying". He means this in that we should daily be dying to ourself and our sin, and living more and more for Christ and His kingdom. I have decided to take a slightly different turn with this idea. I think that Christians should not only die daily, but they should also think about dying daily. Hear me out.
A message given at a women's retreat that I listened to at the beginning of the summer was about thinking of death often. Not in a depressing way, but rather thinking of death in terms of what comes afterward: heaven. To live in light of eternity is to think about death, in a way. At any stage of life we should think about death, for it is what defines us. We are mortals. We are finite. We are not in control.
This evening I went somewhere I have been wanting to go for some time: a cemetery. I had absolutely no ties to anyone or anything there, but it was definitely an experience to remember. There were old and new gravestones, with names and dates and sayings inscribed upon them. Many were for those who had most likely died in old age, but a few were for unborn or stillborn babies. There was a bench made in honor of two kids whose mother had died at the age of 25. One I saw last that made my eyes sting was for a four year old little boy whose gravestone had a picture of his name in his own scribbly andwriting.
Why am I writing about all these morbid things? Death is a topic many people do not wish to discuss. Am I bringing it up in order to ask the question asked by motivational speakers, "What would you want your gravestone to say about you?" I think the better question is, "What are you going to do with your life before you are in need of a gravestone?" or, "What happens after the inscription?" Death comes to all, and we do not the day nor the hour. What are you doing today that matters in eternity? Do you think about death often enough?
This is not a speech in order to motivate you to "live every day as though it was your last", but rather to see life as a gift that can be taken away without our permission. C. T. Studd has a poem where the repeating line at the end of each stanza is, "Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last". Are you living with your eyes fixed on eternity? Do you see death as a very present reality?
The time of salvation is now. Not tomorrow, for who knows what that will bring? It is now that you need to come to Christ - believer or unbeliever. We all need Christ and His immeasurable grace! Let Him consume your life so that every day you wake up eager to bring more glory to His name and more saints to His kingdom!
Don't be afraid to look to the end of your life,for that is when your perfect bliss or damnation begins. It is of crucial importance to know to which one you are going. The end of your mortal life is just the beginning of eternity, and that date may not be as far away as you think.
