If We Were to Die on a Definite Date…

In making decisions or in meeting emergencies, it is sometimes significant to see what a man is most concerned to save. In case of fire, for example, it is interesting to observe what each man considers to be his most priceless possessions.

In one way or another, all of us are daily demonstrating our sense of values by what we do or fail to do, by what we buy or refrain from buying, and by every use or misuse of time and talents and opportunities. When we lose our health, we feel that we would give anything to have it back. But when we have health, we often shamefully abuse it in careless or unwise conduct. Many men lose limbs and even life while taking needless chances in seeking to save lesser things. Sometimes they lose life in the attempted saving of a few seconds.

But if we were given a month to live and knew that this was all we had left of this life, it would be significant to see what our choices would be. And it would be safe to say that some of the things we have been pursuing, and some of the things to which we have given top priority on our timetable, would be quickly shaken down in their order of importance. And some of the things we have neglected would quickly move up toward the top.

Some of the visits we might have had with our children, some of the talks with loved ones we might have taken time for, some of the obligations we might have met, some of the commandments we might have kept, some of the worth-while things we might have worked at all might be hurriedly reevaluated if we knew that time were to be taken from us on a definite date.

“I know of nobody,” wrote Thomas Fuller, “that has a mind to die this year.” Yet always there are before us inevitable eventualities that come for some sooner, and for some not so soon but ultimately for each of us. “It is a poor thing,” said Tertullian some seventeen centuries ago, “for anyone to fear that which is inevitable.” Nor need we fear, if we keep before us a sound sense of values, and recognize the sham and superficialities for what they are, and keep our houses in order and cherish our loved ones, and work at worth-while things, and walk humbly with Him who is the Father of us all, and do our best to evaluate all things as we likely would if we knew that the time allotted us here would end on a definite date.