What if you knew today was your last day on earth? It’s a good question to ask ourselves regularly, if not every day. Would your routine be different? What would you change? If you knew by this time tomorrow you would stand face to face with Jesus Christ, would you be proud or ashamed of the last twenty-four hours?
Few enjoy thinking about death. As long as we’re healthy, there’s a tendency to feel invincible. But time runs out for everyone. We all have a limited amount of time at our disposal, and none of us know exactly how limited our share is. So, regardless of whether you wish to think about your death, it is coming. We may as well prepare for it.
No matter how much forethought you give to it, your last day will probably catch you by surprise. Perhaps it’s better that way, I don’t know. But what if you knew for certain tomorrow was it? What would be different about the way you live for the next twenty-four hours? Would you watch the same movies or television programs? Would you hang out with the same people? Perhaps most telling, would you spend the last hours of your life in the same way you are spending those hours today?
What we do in this life matters. It matters for all eternity. Life on earth is not some dress rehearsal for how we will spend our days with Christ. A rehearsal assumes we get a do-over. There are no do-overs. You have this one life, one chance, one moment, to live for Jesus. When you come to your last day, the weight of all the moments before will come slamming into your back. They will propel you to step across that line. What will it be pushing you?
I want to greet Jesus without looking over my shoulder. I don’t want to be ashamed of what’s behind me. While I’m well aware the blood of Jesus covers all my sins, I’m also aware I will have to account for what I did with the life God entrusted to me (Matthew 25:14-30). When you understand every breath might be your last, you will grasp the urgency with which you must live. Every day, I grow more frustrated with myself and with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Time is running out for each of us, and we live as if it’s not true.
Your last day is coming. Tomorrow may be the day you meet Jesus. If you’re like me, that’s the best news you could ever receive. But don’t you want to walk confidently into that light, knowing you did all you could with what God gave to you? We can’t change what we have or haven’t done in the past. You can change how you will live the next twenty-four hours. Why not, finally, surrender everything to Jesus? Why not exit this world traveling light, leaving nothing undone and nothing unsaid. Live today as if it is your last day. Do it every day. I promise you’ll never regret it.