Consider the END

“Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.” (Psalm 39:4) NIV

How many of us live only for the present, the now? Tomorrow does come. We know that Jesus told us to worry about tomorrow, yet the Scripture does tell us to consider the end.

Why do we frown on considering the end of our lives? Perhaps it is due to the fact that we do not want to face the idea that we are mortal. We become too busy satisfying our senses. We must feel, express, be happy and go for the gusto. Living this way causes us to not have to stop and consider our life’s end.

In the book, Tuesdays with Morrie, we read this discussion between the author and Morrie:

“Weren’t you ever afraid to grow old?”
“Mitch, I embrace aging.”
“Embrace it?”
“It’s very simple. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed twenty-two, you’d always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. Its more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s also the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it. …(Those wishing that they were young again reflect) unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven’t found meaning. Because if you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more. You can’t wait until you’re sixty-five. … You have to find what is good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now.” Tuesdays with Morrie, pages 118-120

What will really be important when we draw our final breath and our heart ceases to beat? JESUS and our walk with Him! Jesus is what is what makes this life good and true and beautiful. When we consider our life’s end we discover that living in the now for Jesus makes the end a WOW for us.

We focus on the end and live in the today and enjoy each moment of everyday but honoring Jesus. That day when we stand before Him, we will see Him smile down upon us, place his arms around us and welcome us into that eternal day. We will celebrate with Him wonders that our eyes have never seen, joys our emotions have never experienced and things we could never have imagined. Consider that end!