DennyWeinman.com

I had an interesting run in with a guy in the gym steam room this morning. I’m a big proponent of NOT talking in the steam room, but this guy had a story to tell. It started out by him making comments about being old and at 65 your body starting to slow down. From there he began talking about his dad and how he lived till his 80′s but he wants to live longer than his father. I don’t know what was going through this man’s head but his entire mindset was on living as long as possible. This conversation was very one sided, but it put a lot of thoughts in my head.

He was entirely consumed with his story, so much so that he took ten minutes in a steam room to talk to a complete stranger of his concern of life. I’ll give you the abbreviated piece. “His dad went to the Dr. for a check up and they sent him to the hospital on concern of pneumonia or something like that but he was physically fine. The man went and saw his dad, and his dad said, I’m fine but I’m done. I’m tired of living and I’m going to see your mom (who had passed away). Within a few days he passed away in the hospital. Nothing was wrong. The man then said again he wanted to live a long time, and not be a burden on anyone.”

Out of that I ask you to pray for him. That he will have an encounter with Christ.

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

It really has me thinking though. We run our lives as if there is no end. As if we’re going to live forever in our current state and we need to go as long as possible. Subconsciously is this guy concerned about his eternity? Is everyone? Is that why we put such an emphasis on quality and longevity of life? We don’t want to die because we’re afraid at the end of it nothing will happen or something bad will happen.

Something bad WILL happen.

Life ends and your eternity begins. If you die without Christ you go to hell. You can’t outlive what happens at the end of your life. You can’t fix it yourself.

On the flip side you have people who are so concerned with the inability to fix themselves that they want to end it early and get to the end result. They don’t want to outlive the result, they don’t want to try and fix it any more. They just want what is coming and do not care of the external repercussions (thoughts and feelings of others).

The only problem is the end game is still the same. You start eternity and where you begin the rest of your life, is a direct result of how you left it. (let me clarify that by saying, if you left off with Christ in your life, regardless of your situation, you will begin eternity with Christ).

If you have an eternal perspective. How are you living. Are you trying to live long and out live your consequences? Or do you have the perspective of Paul, that life is better lived with Christ and eternity in mind, and to progress other believers in their faith.

Philippians 1:23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

You might not agree with Christ, and eternity. We can agree on one thing though. This physical body will die. So let me ask you this. What happens if your concept of life and life after is wrong. I know you’re concerned with aspects of life and death. Everyone has the thoughts, and everyone is driven to some extent by them. Just on the off chance that there is something beyond what you’re doing right now, shouldn’t you investigate every possibility to make sure that you end up on the right side of the line?