How to redeem the days (“we’re all terminal”)

Oh. Huh.

He’s right. I know it. I feel the truth of it, and it snaps my focus ’round right. In a fallen world, we really are all terminal.

So. How ought we to live, knowing that we shall die?

I think of Judy, a sister of friends who traveled to Heaven in a bed. Falling asleep down here, awaking to see His face, all in the blink of an eye.

I think of Brad, a 26-year-old married father of one. A leader for junior high kids, he’d touched the life of our own Kid Kaboom. Then suddenly, on an ordinary day, a blood clot to the lung. Falling asleep down here, awaking to see His face. In the merest blink of an eye.

I think of Benji, the 15-year-old with cystic fibrosis who fights for his life in a bed far away.  His mama, she prays. His daddy prays, too. His brothers (there are three), they love on that boy in the bed far away, and they pray and they wonder, asking questions with no answers.

Then there’s us. Terminal, too, our days have been numbered. Sometime, it will be our turn. Our day. Our time.

So. How ought we to live, knowing that we shall die?

How do we redeem the time, knowing that the days are short? That the clock, it’s ticking? That the sand, it’s slipping right down through the glass, and no one knows when their time’s up?

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

The ancient words thrum with power; pulse with meaning. What else is there but this, to spend our days, our hours and minutes, loving the One who gives breath? Gives life? Who gave His own for ours?

This–this–and nothing less is the way we live to die. It’s how the days, the hours and minutes are redeemed, filled with meaning, bearing fruit, precious fruit that will last.

Perhaps it’s not (I’m thinking this now) how many days we have that counts. Perhaps it’s what we do with the days we have that really matters.  That tells the story. That makes the difference.

Oh, we are all terminal. But glory be, we all shall live, those who’ve been redeemed, forever and ever. We shall fall asleep, awaking to see His face. Alleluia!