Our last breath

 Our Last Breath

 

Teach us to realise the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.

PSALM 90.12

 

Your life is like the morning fog —it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

JAMES 4.14

 

Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties. After all, everyone dies — so the living should take this to heart.

ECCLESIASTES 7.2

 

Have you ever thought about the question, What would you do if you found out you only had a few months to live? Some people say they would go on an extended exotic vacation. Others say they would spend all their time with people they love.

Many people are forced to face that question when they receive a diagnosis for a fatal illness. But the Bible says that asking ourselves that question — thinking about the reality of the shortness of life — is a wise way to live all the time. Understanding death is a healthy part of life.

When we are healthy and everyone we love is healthy, it is easy to avoid thinking about death. But when someone we know gets very sick or when someone we love dies, we are forced to face the reality that our bodies will die at some point too. While we tend to expect to live eighty or ninety years, there are no guarantees of how long we’re given on this earth.

Thinking occasionally about dying is not a morbid, depressing thing. It can actually be a life-giving exercise. It forces us to remember what Christ has done for us on the cross, and it builds our confidence in his victory over eternal death. We exercise our faith muscles when we seriously consider our own deaths someday and, by faith, choose to believe that death will not be the end for us. Because of our connectedness with Jesus, we will take our last breath here and our next breath in his presence, where we will never have to face death again