Life and death happen all around us all the time.
Yesterday, I was looking at Facebook and noticed a strange post on one of my Facebook Friend’s wall, so I went over and visited her page to find out that she was killed in a car accident on the way to work yesterday morning. I don’t know this woman well. We met a few years back in Nashville at The Spaghetti Factory when I took Anne to see Garth Brooks. She was with a group of women, one of which was going to her first concert ever, as was my Anne. We took pictures, laughed, and friended one another on Facebook. They named Anne, “Michelle” (full southern accent included), for the purposes of their posting on Facebook, so Anne and I in turn named our van, “Michelle,” as a memory of our weekend together. Over the years, Sarah and I have exchanged notes and watched each other through the Facebook lens. We both shared a love for the Lord and enjoying life. When I read about her death, the wind was knocked out of me and I just had to close the computer and sit in silence. It was yet another reminder to me that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. She left for work yesterday, just like every other day, but this time she didn’t make it.
As I shared this with Anne last night, and we both got teary for this woman we barely knew, we talked about how we are to live life today because we don’t know if tomorrow will come. We live for Christ today so we are ready if our life on earth were to end tomorrow. We can’t assume that we will be around tomorrow to share Christ with someone who needs Him in their life, we must do it today.
The Bible has this to say about tomorrow:
James 4:13-15
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”
Proverbs 27:1
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
At the other end of the spectrum, a friend of mine gave birth to beautiful baby girl last night. It was in that moment that God reminded me that He holds our lives in His hands. He brings us into this world, gives us His work to do, and welcomes us into His arms at the end of this life, and the beginning of our eternal one. All we have to do is choose to live for Him in this life.
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. (Italics Mine)
Choose life today.
If you have questions about what it means to choose life and to live for God, please feel free to send me a message and ask. I would love to share about the eternal hope we have in Christ Jesus.