If today was your last day

One of the traits of being human is that, for many of us, it’s the negative things which consume most of our attention. We tend to take the good things for granted while obsessing over whatever isn’t going well.

At a personal level, that’s understandable. If we’ve got money problems, they dominate our thoughts. If work or business is difficult, that becomes the issue. If something is going wrong in the family, everything else can suddenly seem secondary.

But when these things are in balance – many of us just move that negativity to the other things going on in our world. The crisis changes. The worrying doesn’t.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

I have a very specific sense of what I’m called to write about – faith, Israel and prophecy – but every once in a while I get distracted by whatever political or public issue happens to be raging at the time and fire off a series of articles about those.

Sure, some of them are important – but probably not as important as they feel at the time. Think back ten years and try to remember the political controversies that dominated the headlines then. The issues everybody was arguing about. The politicians who were apparently going to save the country or destroy it. The stories that filled talkback radio and social media and newspaper columns.

How many can you remember? Probably not many. Most of them have disappeared into history, along with the outrage that surrounded them – and the same will happen to most of the things we’re arguing about today.

That doesn’t mean that we should ignore what’s happening around us – but it means that we should keep it in perspective, because while we spend enormous amounts of time worrying about what might happen next week, next month or next year, there’s one rather uncomfortable fact we all tend to avoid.

None of us actually knows whether we’ll even be here.

In Luke 12:20 Jesus told a story about a wealthy man who had accumulated so much that he decided to build bigger barns to store it all because he was planning for years of comfort ahead.

Then God said to him:

“You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.”

That’s a confronting verse because it cuts straight through our assumption that tomorrow belongs to us. It doesn’t.

I don’t say that to be morbid. I say it because it’s true. Every one of us has an allotted amount of time, and none of us knows how much of it is left. You could have another thirty years. You could have another thirty days. Or today could be your last day.

For me, that idea is brilliantly exemplified in a song from Nickelback – a Canadian Rock Band which sold more than 50 million albums worldwide and wrote a handful of songs that spoke directly to the human condition. You don’t have to have been a fan to have appreciated the deeper lyrical themes of songs such as ‘Lullaby’, ‘If Everyone Cared’ and ‘Savin’ Me’ which all dealt with hope, despair, redemption and the question of what really matters when everything else is stripped away.

But perhaps the most haunting of these was ‘If Today Was Your Last Day’ (https://tinyurl.com/5hfjaekm) in which we’re challenged to consider a possibility that most of us would rather not think about:

“My best friend gave me the best advice
He said, “Each day’s a gift and not a given right”
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less travelled by
That first step you take is the longest stride

If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?

Every second counts ’cause there’s no second try
So live it like you’re never livin’ twice
Don’t take the free ride in your own life
And would you call old friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories?
Would you forgive your enemies?

So do whatever it takes
‘Cause you can’t rewind
A moment in this life
Let nothin’ stand in your way
‘Cause the hands of time
Are never on your side”

(For the complete lyrics click here)

So what about you? If you knew that today was your last day – would your priorities change? Would you want to spend it obsessing about politics? Or your next big deal? Or some grudge you’ve been carrying for thirty years?

Probably not. More likely, you’d think about people. You’d think about family. You’d think about regrets.

And you’d probably think about where you were going after death. Where you would be ‘tomorrow’.

So are you ready? Here are six things that you might want to consider before you answer that question:

1. Have you made proper provision for the people who depend on you? If you have assets, do you have a clear and current will, and does somebody you trust know where it is?
2. Have you told the people who matter most to you that you love them? Not assumed they know. Actually told them.
3. Is there somebody you need to forgive, or somebody you need to make peace with? Some arguments really aren’t worth carrying to the grave.
4. Is there something you’d want your family or friends to hear from you after you were gone? A letter, a message, a recording, something that tells them what they meant to you?
5. Is there something you know you’re meant to do but keep putting off? A book. A business. A conversation. A calling. A passion project. Whatever it is, if you never start it, it will never get finished.
6. And, most importantly, do you know where you stand with your Creator? Given that you’ll soon be standing in front of Him and giving an account of your life and the decisions that you’ve made – are you confident in your relationship with Him? He has provided you with a very simple way to make sure that you’re right with Him, so it would be beyond tragic not to take advantage of that gift.

As the song says, “Each day’s a gift and not a given right.”

Make the most of your gift…..

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