Tomorrow

Over the past several weeks I've had indirect experiences with three instances where someone has died "unexpectedly." All three were young people, two died in their sleep, one while working in the middle of the day. In all three cases there has been a lot of shock and surprise about what happened and justifiably so, I guess. But, here's the thing, while I understand that the death can be surprising in the sense that it wasn't on the schedule for the day, can any death really be unexpected? I mean, we walk around and experience death on a daily basis. People die. Young, old, healthy, sick, rich, poor, it's pretty indiscriminate. On top of that we have clear indication from the Bible that one of the punishments for mankind's rebellion against God is physical death. We have passage after passage that talk about God's sovereign control over the universe, life and death, and verses that warn us not to assume that we will go here and there and sell and make a profit, because we do not know what tomorrow will bring. And even with all that, Christians seem to fall into the mindset of the world in not really believing that death is going to happen. Not really believing that at any moment, God can and may demand the life he gave you back.

It just seems to me the extent to which I'm shocked by an unexpected death is a pretty good indicator of my lack of belief about what the Bible teaches and what I say I believe. In one sense, no death is unexpected. We have been given fair warning. The question I have to keep asking myself is, how would I live differently if I really believed the things I know about that fact?