Take this to heart

Yesterday on the plane ride home I was sitting next to someone that clearly had something on his mind. He was a youngster about thirty-five. As soon as I said hello it was like releasing a gusher of water. He immediately told me that he had just lived through one heck of a terrible day. He was on a business trip and it had been successful. The prior night he and two of his cohorts went out to eat a good steak and celebrate their good fortune. They had a nice meal, an after dinner cigar, and nightcap and reviewed their good fortune and business trip. After sitting around enjoying conversation, their cigar and drink they called it a night and went to bed. The next morning one of them was missing for breakfast. Known for being an early riser, they began to get concerned about their friend when he had not shown up by 8 A.M.

They called security but his friend’s hotel room door was locked from the inside. They finally gained entrance to the room by climbing a trellis to the second floor and entering through a window. This gentleman found his friend still in bed. When he checked his pulse, he was cold. He had died in his sleep; apparently peacefully as he appeared to look to be asleep when he found him. The paramedics suspected an aneurysm or stroke.

This young man was understandably shaken to the core. He had never experienced being exposed to death this closely. The man that died was 63; he left a wife three sons and three grandchildren. The young man could not say enough about what a fine person he was and how much he loved his family and was loved by his co-workers. The previous night they had been discussing vacations and all of them expressed where they would go on vacation given the choice of anywhere worldwide. The man that died did not pick Las Vegas, Tahiti, or Europe; he simply stated that he would like to spend four days with his grandchildren, he mentioned that five days would be too much, but four would be perfect (Spoken like a true grandfather).

I thought of the thousands and thousands of similar business trips I have taken and wondered if that might be how I end up some day. Actually it weighed quite heavily on my mind for the rest of the evening and obviously this morning. This morning when I woke up I immediately checked and determined that indeed I was alive and was glad that I made it through another night. I do not envy the family that this man left behind. As I celebrate the Lord allowing me another day on this earth, this family and his friends are dealing with grief and sorrow. I have already said a prayer for them this morning.

I do not know if this man was a Christian. He will have already faced God and is either in heaven or Hell. The reputation he left behind in the world was that he was admired by intelligent men and women and loved by children and particularly his family; however it will not be long and he will return to dust and be completely forgotten by the world as will all of those loved ones he left behind.

It is something to think about. The world and everything in it is going to abruptly end one day. We will die just as he did. Heaven and Hell are forever. It just does not make much sense to live for the fading world and everything in it as if it is going to last forever. Anyone who does so is not investing wisely. Don’t live as though you will live forever; you will not! Don’t live for the world which is just temporal; live for Jesus Christ who is forever.

Ecc 7:2
Death is the destiny of every man;
the living should take this to heart.