No one has ever gotten out of this life alive. Joan Baez, the folk singer said, “We do not get to choose how we are going to die or when. We can only decide how we are going to live.” William Penn would have agreed, for he said, “I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore there can be any kindness I can show or any good thing I can do for any fellow being let me do it now…as I shall not pass this way again.”
Senator Elizabeth Dole has observed, “When you’re in your 90’s and looking back, it’s not going to be how much money you made or how many awards you’ve won. It’s really ‘What did you stand for? Did you make a positive difference for people?”
It is valuable to think about what choices we have made that we would be glad to have made should we find that we were going to die shortly.
Someone once asked Mickey Rooney what he wanted on his epitaph when he passed away. He replied, “Just the words ‘I tried’ That’s what this game of life is all about. Trying. There’s the tryers, the criers, and the liars.”
At the end of our life, will we have made the important choices? Are we choosing to do the things that we know we should do, the things that we will be glad we have done when looking back? Are we trying to do what is right?
Abraham Lincoln told us that, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
Another wise man said, “You cannot do a kindness too soon, because you never know how soon it will be too late.” Many of us have purchased a get well card to send to a sick loved one and learned that he/she had died before we mailed it. The lesson is — do it now. Kind thoughts are good, but not good enough unless they are followed up with kind deeds.
What is the divine perspective? Solomon tells us, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”
To people obsessed with the daily concerns of what to eat, what to wear, and what to do about life’s problems, Jesus advises, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” God wants us to choose to serve Him first, and to do it with our might. The Pharisees were condemned for getting their priorities wrong. Jesus told them, “You have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith: these ought ye to have done.”
Our concerns should be for the needs of others, which we learn from the royal law of scripture, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” and Jesus’ words, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
God has put each of us on this earth to serve others, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” At the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of the year, and the end of our life, can we say that we came not to be served but to serve? Paul tells us that we have been called to serve one another in love. “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
John gives us a little test to help us know what love really is. He said, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
So all these non-Biblical advisors are telling us to do the right thing today and the inspired writers tell us that we need to be showing our love for our God by showing our love to His children. It is true that we shall not pass through this mortal life again, so now is the time to show our love by our actions. None of us knows just how much time we have left. Let us listen to the wise counsel of Paul, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is…be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One