Making thoughts count - Generous Mind

Dying on a Normal Day

Grandma pointed to the funeral home on the corner and said almost with a little pride, “That’s where I’m going to have my funeral.” Then she put her hand over her heart and tapped, “I want a gardenia right here.” It seemed strange that she found such joy in the thought that even though she wouldn’t be present for the occasion, she had that much to say in the event.

Do you ever wonder what you will be doing when you die? Will you die in your sleep? Or when you are on your morning walk? Will your loved ones be with you or will you be alone? Why do we think about these things? What is it about the day that we die that is so intriguing to us? Maybe it is the fact that we don’t have control over that critical day when we change from a mortal being into an eternal one. We try to control so many things in our lives—for example, our wedding day. We spend months or even years preparing and dreaming about this day, and we orchestrate it to the very last detail. Many of us feel the need to control all the important days of our lives—birthdays, Christmases, anniversaries. The day that you die is infinitely more consequential than any of these, yet we have no control. We just have to wait and hope that it comes when we are at our peak or when we have accomplished all the goals that are pulsing through the gray matter in our heads.

What we do control in our lives is how we live. God designed it this way so that every good thing that comes about through us brings glory back to Him. By focusing in on the day that we die, we are able to better focus in on our life and how we will chose to live it to bring Him glory. In Mitch Albom’s book Tuesdays with Morrie, his old professor Morrie, repeats his mantra “When you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” A dying Morrie tells Mitch, a harried sportswriter, about his ideal day of perfect health. “That’s what we’re all looking for. A certain peace with the idea of dying. If we know, in the end, that we can ultimately have peace with dying, then we can finally do the really hard thing . . . Make peace with living.” What he describes is a surprisingly average day, spending time with friends and family, doing the things her enjoyed and thought worthwhile. Would you do the same?

Some people think about their last days and describe elaborate vacations, amazing adventures, or glorious achievements. Why was Morrie hoping for a day that we would consider average? The secret in Albom’s book is that Morrie had discovered that when you live with the end in site, not looking away from it, but embracing it and ordering your priorities accordingly, you can create a life of days you would be willing to spend your last day of health living.

So what is the key to this simple truth in a Christian context? If you live each day appreciating God’s glory and bringing Him glory you will create a life of days you will be willing to die on. Reverend John Piper is one of this century’s most eloquent advocates of the glory of God. In his book Don’t Waste Your Life he said, “Therefore every enjoyment in this life and the next that is not idolatry is a tribute to the infinite value of the cross of Christ – the burning center of the glory of God. And thus a cross-centered, cross-exalting, cross-saturated life is a God-glorifying life – the only God-glorifying life. All others are wasted.”

Many of us have seen the contrast of deaths. There are those people who die in peace and those who die in agony. What is the difference? What is the peace or conflict of the soul that describes our mortal end? We all want to finish well, but how many people really do? There is work to be done in order for us to have an answer to some of these questions. If we die on an ordinary tomorrow in a full life, we must begin to define what that full life should be. If we do not search it out, then we will arrive on that final day and it will not be what we had dreamed. Second Peter 1:3 gives us the answer, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” (NIV)

So let us begin looking for the moments of that final day. And in the search we will find a life of purpose. Think of a day that you wake up excited and fresh. What is it that propels you forward? That thing that gives your life meaning and hope is a piece of that last day. It is most likely a gift God has given you that is seeing a fruitful end in your life. You may have several of these in your life. Spend some time thinking about how each of them began their work in you and how you lived that work out to a successful completion. Or maybe you didn’t . . . what went wrong? Can you differentiate between things that you simply enjoy or tolerate and the dreams that inspire you?

Think of the people you want to see. The people you want around you on that final day are the people you should be investing in now. So many times we spend time with people who aren’t interested in investing in our lives at the expense of spending time with people where there is an opportunity for growth. We think that we’ll get in touch someday . . . but it never happens. We think that the people we love will wait and in that complacency we squander some of the most powerful relationships we could ever encounter. Wouldn’t it be better to be investing in those around us who God has put in our lives?

Think of the activities that fill up your day. Are you in a maddening race against time? Your calendar and your clock just don’t add up and every day is a disappointment of unmet expectations. When we max out our days with activities that seem critical at present but hold little long-term importance, what have we truly gained? If you think about the day that just ended and all you can remember of it is the traffic, the line at the bank, the boring meeting and the leftover tuna sandwich, then your normal day does not describe that ideal day.

Think of the things that you have delayed and put off. The most dangerous thing in life is to postpone your dreams and lose them to the practical details of the everyday. Why did you put off going to college? What made you decide against moving away from home? Why did you choose one career over another? What prompted you to give up that hobby? It is okay to put things off because you are making priorities, but the priorities in your life should be based on more than the immediate challenges that you face. We often talk about “putting out fires.” Those who spend their lives in that reactive posture never find peace and fulfillment.

Think of the feeling that you get when you put your head down on the pillow after a tiring day. You feel a relief and a satisfaction in simple perseverance. Think of the things that made your day worthwhile. What were the moments in your day that really made the difference? Was it the talk with your neighbor before work, the cup of coffee and the magazine that you enjoyed in the middle of the morning, the smell of the air as you emerged from a long day of meetings and walked back to your car, or the smile in your daughter’s eyes when you told her she was beautiful?

Once you have processed these questions, it is time to act. That will look different in everyone’s life, and there is no pat answer that can be given in a magazine or detailed in book. But these questions will always lead you to action. There is a simple reason—we are a work in progress. We are lives that God is shaping and making into holy vessels that will finish well. Our lives are like the jars of flour and oil in the hands of the starving widow in 1 Kings chapter 17. God wants nothing more than to see our lives be valuable resources in His hands. Those jars didn’t hold any power, but with God’s power, they provided life to a starving family. What if the widow had refused to feed Elijah and have faith that God would sustain her? Her last day may have come prematurely and without joy. The greatest shame is a life that is squandered and opportunities that are ignored. There is no glory for God in that. If our life is to be characterized by the quality of days that we would be willing to die on, we need to search our souls today and find the path that glory clears.