Leave an Inheritance that Matters

What would you do if you knew you had only thirty days to live?  Such a question sends our minds running. My own answer gravitates toward spending time with loved ones.  Such relationships seem to matter most.

If the divine voice told you to put your house in order would you clean out the garage?   Or would you review your financial issues, read your last will and testament, and list the texts and hymns for your funeral?  Perhaps you would write a letter to each of your special loved ones as a parting gift to them.

What would you say in your parting memo to loved ones?  Work hard, read widely, travel, be generous, value friendships?  Let care and kindness flow from your heart?  Or maybe I would apologize and endeavor to fix any broken  place I could think of., straighten out misunderstandings left too long.

Finally I would try to let myself soak in the love of Jesus while dumping all my failures, mistakes and sins..  I'd just fill my heart and soul with Handel's Messiah, especially The Hallelujah chorus, and other messages of heavenly affection in musical form, confident my house was in order.

What is Good About Life?

I made a quick mental run through my week just ending and made a striking discovery.  Although intensely involved in some important projects and sensitive pastoral concerns, the heart-warming points in my week took place  in our back yard.

Two tidbits stood out.  One was the discovery of delicious figs ripening on our tree.  It happens every year but here it is happening again.  The second pleasing moment occurred when I turned over a heavyu, broken chunk of concrete and stood looking eye to eye at a little lizard.

A jam-packed week of relationships, challenges, struggling and thriving people and my highlights were ripening figs and a creepy crawler.  The last two won the prize.

The heavy things of life move us, teach us and deepen us, sometimes profoundly.  But singing God's goodness, celebrating  life's richness, skipping for joy over God's faithfulness often springs from the small joys of everyday.  A flower, a friendship, a child, music, or a little lizard can spark our joy like nothing else, sometimes.

Life is God's Gift

Disbelief, shock, then anger are the initial responses to a personal announcement of imminent death.
It is rarely an acceptable diagnosis.  I want to live! Here! Physically! 

A short time ago my wife and I traveled over the rocky road of breast cancer which carried a major surgical part, chemotherapy and reconstructive surgery.  Never did she, or I, regard this as a death warrant.  We responded with aggressive tactics aimed to deny death any chance of winning.  Hezekah too fought as best he knew how to live.  He too had a powerful love of life and wanted badly to go on living.


Life is God's gift.  It is not an insignificant holding time. There will come a time when, with a sigh, approaching death may be acceptable, maybe a relief welcomed and even longed for.  Until then, however, death is an enemy to be opposed, stalled, and blocked every way we can. 

Life is a Gift We Must Use Every Day and Cherish with all Our Heart.

There is nothing like facing one's own death.  The focus of one's mind at such times can be amazing.  I have observed this as a Pastor walking alongside.  Most, however, embrace death the way they embrace life.  Some are matter-of-fact, or see it a s a challenge.  Others live in denial acting like it isn't really going to happen.  Many spiritualize the prospect of moving into the presence of Jesus, and smile (often smiling through their tears).  A few are depressed and resentful.  Most quietly resign themselves and accept what is coming.

Death challenges God's people like walking on a high-wire.  We need to balance love of life as we know it with the incredible prospect of heaven. Life is a gift, and we are entrusted with it as partners with Jesus in making the world a better place.  Our earthly life is not a mere passing-through.  We are "the light of the world" and expected towork at and enjoy brightening the world, in any small way we can.  We are to fight for life.  Heaven can wait.  There is work to do, relationships to tend to, beauty to be celebrated, wonders to behold, and innovations and improvements to conceive.  Life is a gift and an assignment..

The Hospice Movement

Hospice care is one of the most helpful and wonderful gifts to human life imaginable.  Hospice care brings pain relief, loving-kindness and dignity to those whose life is coming to an end.  Instead of tubes, machines and desperate procedures trying to keep a person alive, the person rests comfortably in familiar surroundings encircled by loving friends and family.

That is where I met Joyce.  She was already well along in her life -endiong illness.  But we talked.  Her mind was clear and her smile cheering but she was thin and ebbing away.  Then as I held her hand a beautiful scene flashed into my mind.  Joyce, I suddenly saw as a cocoon and emerging  and then floating upward was a beautiful butterfly.  A sad ending turned into a pleasant beginning.

Stories have trickled in for decades about the beautiful moments surrounding death-angels, comforting voices, warmth, love and more.  The end of life for many is not bleak and difficult.

But King Hezekiah wasn't ready for death.  Life in this world challenged and called him.  So he cried  and cried  out to God for a reprieve. There is a time to fight for life and there is a time to let go.  The tears of this King touched the heart of God.

Jesus Loves Me This I Know

Look at this Biblical text:  "In those days Hezekiah (king)  became ill and was at the point of death.  The prophet Isaiah said to him:  "This is what the Lord says -'Put your house in order ... you are going to die; you will not recover.'"  II Kings 20:1-11

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed. these words:  "Remember, O Lord how I have walked before you faithfully and with whole-hearted devotion.  I have done what is good in your eyes."  The Hezekiah wept.

Before Isaiah had left the temple, the word of the Lord came to him:  "Go back and tell Hezekiah...'I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.  I will heal you.  I will add fifteen years to your life.  And I will deliver you from the hand of the King of Assyria.'"  Then Isaih said "Prepare a poultice of figs."  They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.

The most remarkable revelation here is God saying "I have seen your tears."

The important bottom line here is that God is touched by our distress.  God is moved by human cries and heartache.

The love and life of Jesus is all about that enormous reality--God loves us so much our distress, our confusion, our anguish breaks his heart.  And he gives us his love totally for our healing and well-being.