Questioning Your Heart: “What if Today Was Your Last…?”

With today being the last day of the Mayan calendar, I heard a discussion between two guys at Starbucks yesterday concerning what they would do if Friday, December 21 really was the last day they had to live.  One man began describing the steak he would eat and what drink he would choose to go with it.

His answer led me to ask some questions of myself: “Brent, is that what you would do if you knew it was your last day on earth?”  The answer: “No, because if today is my last day on earth, then I know tomorrow I will be in heaven, and in heaven there will be much more joy than a steak from a sin-scarred world can provide.  The whole reason to eat a steak on your last day on earth would be to experience its savory delight in the expectation that you will be derived of such delight in the next life.  For a believer in Christ, I can expect that ‘to depart and be with Christ’ will be ‘very much better’ (Philippians 1:23), so I will do something other than eat a steak.”

“Brent, what will you do then?”  The answer: “Something that I will not be able to do in heaven.  This does not mean that I will spend the day pursuing sin and immorality because there is none of that in heaven.  Rather, I mean, what God-glorifying thing will I do that I will not be able to do in heaven?  Okay, I know, I will tell unbelievers of the only hope they have to escape God’s judgment of sin: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  There will be no unbelievers in heaven to share this hope with, so I would spend the day doing that.

“Brent, even though you don’t think tomorrow is going to bring the end of the world, you do agree that any day on this earth could be your last… so why aren’t you sharing the hope of the gospel more in view of this reality?”  The answer (after a pause of conviction): “Because I don’t see God’s grace for the treasure that it truly is.”

A prayer: “Lord, help me see my sin as wretched, treasonous rebellion so that that I see your grace as awesome, breath-stealing beauty… so that I will tell more people that they can experience this grace too.”