Death has such a harrowing way of causing us to not only grieve and mourn with those who mourn; it causes us to consider our own mortality. It should. During yesterday morning’s church services, with exuberant joy, the HOPE Missions Ghana team shared the incredible news of the doors the Lord is continuing to open in that region through this organization to draw people to Himself. We were thrilled to leave service to get online and share the work with the world. We also invited our networks and spheres to partner with us to see it through. Just as soon as we got settled, news of the tragedy broke, and rightfully so, the world reflected on losing nine precious souls who did not experience this morning’s sunrise.
Here we are today, facing life in the after of the untimely death of those nine souls including Kobe & Gianna Bryant. I woke up with one resolved thought. With each fleeting moment, those living in the after are given divine opportunities to honor the lives of those who’ve passed by, powerfully and positively impacting the lives of those still among us.
As a believer and desperate follower of Jesus Christ, the highest privilege of my life is exhausting every beat of my heart, every breath from my lungs, every tidbit of intellect, every ounce of talent and ability to know Jesus and make His love and gospel known and felt in the earth.
There is a coming day set on the future calendar where my eyes will close here and open in eternity. Ultimately, the only thing that will matter is who I lived for and what I achieved for who I lived for. If it’s all about me, my legacy and life were lived in vain in view of my own mortality. But if I live for Someone greater, a certain Savior who gave up His own life and rose in power to give me life with Him beyond this earth, then everything I do with Him and for Him will have an eternal impact.
His Commission becomes much more urgent given our mortality. According to the United Nations World Population Prospects report, “approximately 7,452 people die every day in the United States. In other words, a person dies in the US approximately every 12 seconds.” Globally, that number is 151,600, with nearly two people dying each second.
As followers of Jesus, our impact should have both temporal and eternal implications and applications. Woe to us if we just feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked, take in and empower the refugee or impoverished, and never tell them about Jesus, who demonstrated His love most greatly by dying for their sins to eternally reconcile them with their Creator giving them a more glorious life beyond this one with Him for all of eternity.
So this is where you and I come in. We get to live today, at least for right now, while reading this. We get to impact the lives around us for something, Someone greater.
If you are reading this and are unsure of what will happen to you when you die, I would love to talk with you. Where you spend eternity matters more than anything else in this life. It matters eternally to God. Please contact me if there’s any shred of uncertainty.
