LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING

"Live like you were dying" is the name of a chapter of the book we are studying in Sunday school. It is also the name of a song that Tim McGraw sang....

I was in my early forties with a lot of life before me when a moment came that stopped me on a dime. I spent most of the next days looking at the x-rays and talking about the options and thinking about sweet time. I asked him when it sank in that this might really be the end, how's it hit you when you get that kind of news? Man what'd you do?

I went skydiving. I went Rocky Mountain climbing. I went 2.7 seconds on a bull names Fumanchu. I loved deeper, and I spoke sweeter, and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying. And he said, someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying. He said I was finally the husband that most of the time I wasn't. I became a friend that a friend would like to have. All of a sudden going fishing wasn't such an imposition and I went three times that year I lost my dad. Well, I finally read the good book and took a good long hard look at what I'd do if I could do it all again.....

This is very thought-provoking, isn't it? It puts a lot into prospective. Each day I thank God for allowing me to have another day and I am adamant that I do not intentionally waste any precious time. In this day and age, it is so easy to get so wrapped up in the cares of this world, to get too busy doing things that do not benefit us or anyone else. As Christians, we should be mindful of living as if it was our last day. Would we do anything differently? Would there be those who we would need to ask forgiviness from? Would we be spending more time in prayer, reading the Word, making amends to family? Making things right between ourselves and the Lord? 

Romans 13:11-12 states "Knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light". Ephesians 4:1 says to "Live a life worthy of the calling you have received".  

I have a habit (whether it's good or not) of watching people. Sometimes, it is entertaining to sit on a bench and watch people go by, to see their expressions and demeaner, how they react to what's going on around them. I also watch people at church. Our expressions on our faces tell me a lot. Being in church all my life, I have become pretty good at reading people...very few fool me. What I see sometimes overwhelms me in a good way and then other times, not so good. I, myself, am guilty of my facial expressions getting the best of me. Most people know when I am aggravated, down in the dumps, tired and give out BUT do they or do you see when I am basking in the presence of God? I think we are all guilty of showing our "darker" side but do we really show the goodness and mercy of God in our lives, on our faces? Listen people....we are BLESSED in so many ways. Let God see it by the way we live each day. LIVE AS IF YOU WERE DYING. Come to think of it, we really are. The day we were born, we started on the journey of dying. It's a morbid thought you may think but it is truth in it as well. Let people see JESUS, only JESUS.