Word of the Week - Mortality
The years of our life are seventy, or possibly eighty by reason of strength; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Psalm 90:10
My good friend Charlie Beck, who I met over 25 years ago when I moved to Birmingham, died suddenly last Sunday afternoon from a heart attack after a round of golf at Shoal Creek with family and friends. Charlie had just turned 64, which seems young from my perspective. Charlie lived a rich life and was loved by so many. We celebrated his life yesterday with family and friends at his life Celebration Service. It was a sacred time together as we laughed and cried remembering Charlie. He was a unique and authentic person who had a God sized heart of love and generosity that we all loved and was a common theme at his service. He was a good man and a great friend but like all of us, he was a flawed human being with rough edges and brokenness that I believe led him to know his need for God. He was not the typical church going kind, although he did attend church from time to time. I believe he is in heaven today because he had faith in Jesus, not because he did anything to earn salvation. He is survived by his amazing wife Mary and 3 awesome grown children Catherine, Anna and John who are all married with great spouses. He also has 6 beautiful grandkids. He will be greatly missed by all; I look forward to seeing him again one day in heaven.
Reality of this Life – Each day that we have on this earth is a gift from God and it is up to us to determine how we will use it. The truth is that none of us will get out of this world alive. Only God knows the day or hour that we will face our departure from this world but each day that we live we are getting one day closer to the inevitable. I think we can all agree that as we get older time seems to pass much faster. God’s word is full of scripture that address this topic. James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes”. The average life span in the U.S. is 78, and even if we are blessed with a long life of 80 or 90 years, that is still a dot (mist/vapor) in the realm of eternity. So how are we to process this reality? On one hand it seems a bit scary and depressing, encouraging many of us to not want to think about it, which is the path most take. On the other hand, it is the reality of life, and thus I believe it is something to be embraced. God tells us in Psalm 90:12 “To teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
God Perspective – The truth according to God’s Word (perspective) is that this life was never intended to be the end game. Our life on this earth was always meant to be temporary. “For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all of our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, this is not our permanent home”. 1 Chronicles 29:15 If we gain a godly perspective and understand this reality, it is truly a gamechanger on how we live and think about physical death. Even more importantly, how we see the process of death. This is why Psalm 90 above tells us that there is great wisdom in understanding that we have limited days on this earth and taking that to heart.
By the grace of God, I have personally experienced God’s divine wisdom in this area as I have grown in my walk of faith. Over the last 20 years since surrendering my heart to God, God has graciously led me from a place of fearing death and the unknown associated with dying, to embracing this life on earth as a process of preparing me for the next life, eternal life with Jesus. This has been life changing for me. So much so that I founded a ministry called the Heritage Forum www.heritageforums.com, where I and a group of amazing men lead a 2 day retreat to help men gain a new perspective on this process of beginning with the end in mind. Encouraging men that if we are in Christ and living with a God purpose and Heritage Vision, the best is yet to come and the final chapters of our lives can be the most enjoyable and productive years of our lives. In fact, the first exercise we do at the Heritage Forum after our welcome reception and a dinner is go through an exercise of writing our Obituary from the perspective of sitting at your funeral at 90 years old and listening to what your family and friends say about you and your life and what you would want them to say. This is a powerful exercise that gives us godly wisdom as noted in Psalm 90.
Our Hope in Christ – Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 This is the good news of our faith, the simple gospel. Jesus overcame death on the cross and gave us all access to eternal life. This is a free gift that is available to all of us but we must make a decision of faith to receive this gift. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works, that than no one can boast”. Ephesians 2:8-9 The truth is that none of us is without sin and good enough to save ourselves, “we all fall short” Romans 3:23. We are not saved by anything we do other than accepting and believing in what Jesus did for us through the cross. The lie of the enemy is to try to make us think we have to do something or be a certain way to earn our salvation; the enemy of our soul wants us to believe we are not worthy. None of us is righteous or worthy in ourselves but yet God loves us and desires for us all to come to know Jesus and be saved. “Therefore, since we have been made righteous through His faithfulness combined with our faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1
So we have a choice, we can live like most of the world fearing and avoiding the inevitable, or we can embrace the reality of our mortality and walk by faith understanding that this life is our temporary home preparing us for our permanent home with Jesus. Do you fear death? Do you have assurance of your eternal destiny? If not, I encourage you to surrender your life to Jesus today and be born of the spirit of God so you can be assured of where you will spend eternity. Romans 10:9-10
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16
“We only live once but if we live life well, once is enough”. Bruce Johnston JH Ranch
I apologize for the length of this “Word of the Week”. Have a great week!!!!
-Duane