Response and Responsibility

Ps. 39 "O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!

The power of music is pretty amazing. Sometime yesterday, or even the day before, I heard just part of the song "Live like you were dying" and now it is stuck in my head. The idea of the song is fine, but the things that he chose to do with his last days, for the most part, are not too beneficial.

In Ps. 39 the Psalmist is asking that God would let him to know how fleeting his life is and to even know the actual number of his days. If you knew today exactly how many days you had left, would you live today and tomorrow differently? If you knew, for sure, that you had 40 years left would you live it differently than if you had 40 days?

It is good that we don't know how much time we have because I don't think we could handle that amount of truth, but, as Christians, we should live like today is our last day. Only God knows if we have tomorrow.

Teresa and I had lunch yesterday with a couple who have been in missions for 40 years. It is evident that he is passionate about evangelism. Even in the restaurant he was finding a way to talk to the wait staff about Christ, or to at least hand them a tract. There are so many people that we run into 1 time, EVER, in our lives and we may be the only person who is willing to share the Gospel with them; or will we chicken out?

If the person we are talking to is, for all we know, dying and going to hell and we are having a nice conversation with them about whatever, shouldn't we share the only really good news we have with them? Compared to the Gospel, finding a good deal at some store is not really good news. Compared to the Gospel, giving some vacation tip, or restaurant review is not really good news. So why do we not share? We buy Satan's lie that they may think us strange, or they may not be interested.

Even more than in other areas, with the Gospel, the other person's response is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to be faithful to share and God will do the rest. You might be the very first person that has ever shared with this person and they need to hear the Gospel 15 times before God works in their heart. You might also be number 15. We can't know and it doesn't matter, we just need to share.

So, if we live like we are dying today, who do we need to share with that we have been waiting for the "perfect time"? What if today is your last day and you're waiting for tomorrow's lunch meeting? What if you or they are done today?

This is especially true of the Gospel, but is also true of just saying what we really need to say. Maybe that comes in the form of some encouraging words we have been wanting to share, maybe it is to tell someone that you really do love them, or that you have finally forgiven them after all these long years. You know what it is as you read this post, but don't wait until tomorrow, because we are not guaranteed a tomorrow, at least not here on earth.