Live, Death is Already on the Way!
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Written by Jimmie Burroughs – e-Mail this article to a friend
It was Oliver Wendell Homes Sr. that said, “Death tugs at my ear and says, ’Live. I am coming.” Yesterday, here in Florida, was a tragic reminder of how suddenly death can come. Only a few miles from where I am staying, at least 10 people were killed, and 18 were hospitalized in a horrendous Sunday morning highway pileup on I-75 near Gainesville, Florida. I recently traveled that stretch of highway little realizing that 10 people would soon die an agonizing death in that very spot. Life is so uncertain, and death often comes suddenly and when least expected.
Steve Jobs in his commencement speech at Stanford said about death, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. No one wants to die,” he added. ”Even people who want to go to heaven do not want to die to get there. Yet, death is the destination we all share. “Your time is limited,” Jobs added. ”So do not waste it living someone else’s life. … Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
What Mr. Homes and Steve Jobs said is so true: death is indeed coming, and it could be at any time and unexpected. That should motivate each of us to live life to its fullest while there is still time. One of the greatest questions ever pondered at life’s end is “Did I live?” Not all men live some just exist. Therefore, today the question is what is the difference in living and just existing?
I believe there are 3 very important questions that each of us need ask ourselves in order to determine if in fact we are living or just existing:
- What have I done to improve myself?
- What have I done to help others?
- How have I prepared for death?
First: What have I done to improve myself?
At birth, we all stand at the same starting place. Some have the advantage of having caring parents, or caretakers who start immediately our development by teaching language, how to sit, how to stand and how to walk. Then school from grade 1 through 12, and for some college and even graduate school, further prepare us to live. So as much as 25 years of our beginning on the earth is involved in preparing and improving ourselves for living life.
Overall, we have 78 years, if we live an average lifespan projected as of 2012, to determine if we lived or just existed. The first 25 years may or may not include advanced education. Anyway that does not entirely determine whether we lived or just existed, nor does it contain all the development life needs. Life from its beginning to its end should be a course in development. There is no static position where we have arrived and can just remain there. Either we continue to improve as a person, or we begin to regress as a person. How often have we known those who spent the latter part of life in the regressive mode and slowly just regressed into nothingness; only existing, never contributing but instead becoming isolated and internalized?
There is a constant need for personal development. There remains so much to be learned about life and how we relate to the events and things around us.
Second: What have I done to help others?
Jesus was once asked by a lawyer what was the greatest commandment? Jesus replied, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart…is the first and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.” A desire to do for others grows from the heart of love. However, notice that Jesus not only says we are to love God and others, but we are to love ourselves. Logic tells us that loving ourselves is a requirement to love others. When there is no respect for self, there is also no respect for others.
How does one learn to love and to respect themselves? Some just seem naturally seem to love themselves but still may not love others. The best answer to that question is to obey the first commandment that Jesus mentioned, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…” That enable a person to love themselves and also to love others. There is a chain effect, love God first, love self second, and then love others: LG+LS=LO. In the following section, we will see how first to love God.
Third: How have I prepared for death?
Recently I wrote an article entitled, “If you were to die today, where you would spend eternity?” I syndicated the article not thinking it would be well received across the World Wide Web, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was rapidly picked up by article directories and web sites across the world. Therefore, it made me wonder if folks, as a result of all that has been happening in the past few years, are beginning to realize that it is important to consider what happens after life on earth.
There is a true story of a little old grey-haired man, as he was called, whose name was Mr. Ginner who lived in Sydney, Australia, whose everyday life consisted of walking up and down George Street in Sydney and asking one question to those he met, “If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity? The Bible says it will be either heaven or hell.”
For years, the little old man did this each day and never knew whether anyone ever paid any attention. It was not until the end of his life when Francis Dixon an English evangelist searched where he lived, and came to his home and told him of all the people that he had encountered across the world who received Jesus as a savior as a result of his witness.
Perhaps that question also strikes an intense interest in your heart: “If you were to die today where would you spend eternity?” Would you also like to settle that question in your life once and for all? I have been a believer for much longer than a lot who are reading this are old, and I can truthfully tell you that, in all those years, I have yet to hear one person who received Jesus as their savior who ever said that they regretted it. Instead, they say it was the best decision they ever made. You will never regret today if you decide to receive Jesus as your savior. It is as easy as A, B, C. CLICK HERE to learn how to become a Christian
Conclusion:
The easiest thing to do is always to put something off and plan to do important things at a later time when it is more convenient. Many have done that very thing never again to find a convenient time. They died without having done the most important thing in life, and that is to prepare for death. I have been a Christian for many years, but it has only been lately that the full understanding of what it means to die unprepared to meet God has become ever so clear to me. That understanding has become a driving force to cause me to want to let every person possible to know what it means.
First of all, to die unprepared to meet God means not only physical death but also spiritual death. Both mean separation: physical death is a separation of soul and spirit from the body and spiritual death means the separation of the body, soul and spirit from God. It is the picture of that final separation from God that recently became so clear to me. Many are separated from God in life, and pay little attention to it because they have their things, friends and family.
Death, however, takes on a whole new meaning of what it means to be separated from God because it also means to be separated from your things, your friends, and your family and most importantly from God, his joy and peace and everything that really matters. That means to be entirely alone in darkness, not for just a time but forever, age without end. Whatever else hell may be, this is totally unfathomable and is not where you ever want to wind up. Do something about it now while you can. Do not wait for a more convenient time that may never come!
About the author: Jimmie Burroughs is a motivational speaker and author who has been involved in teaching Christian Personal Development for more than 30 years. There are hundreds of articles to help you on this website (Website Contents) in your personal growth.
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