The Tribune

By Allison Miller

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment...”

(Hebrews 9:27)

A few weeks ago I attended a home-going service of a former schoolmate. I was in complete shock to learn of his death. I mean, he was only 38 years old.

To some that may seem old, but trust me, it isn’t, as many of you would probably agree.

Nowadays it’s the young people who are seeing death more than anyone else. It is a very sad and unfortunate thing.

When I hear of any young person’s demise, I wonder to myself two things. Firstly, did they have a personal relationship with God and did they execute their purpose? And secondly, was all that God had predestined in their lives accomplished?

Struggling to get over the shock of my schoolmate’s death, these were thoughts that came to me.

You see, when all is said and done, at the end of the day we will be called into account by God to say what we did with our lives. It is important to keep before us that only what is done for Christ will matter.

Therefore, it is vital that we live out our God-given purposes. In order for us to live with purpose, we have to have a personal relationship with God to find out what that purpose is.

A relationship with God ensures that we live out our purpose and that we live it out loudly. The late Dr Myles Munroe said something so profound that it really caused me to view life in a different light. His words were, “The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life without purpose.”

What an eye-opener! Losing someone to an untimely death is not as bad as if that person lived his or her whole life without ever fulfilling their God-given assignment. None of us can afford to just live and die; we rob too many people of our gifts and talents when we do nothing with our lives.

Now, as sure we are living, we are going to die because death is definitely a part of life. If you believe in Jesus Christ you should be aware that there is a life after death that we all need to prepare for.

When your or my number is called we have to be ready. At that time there is no do-over or reset button. Correcting the mistakes has to be done now while we are alive. We correct those mistakes by accepting the Lord Jesus as our personal saviour and doing what he instructs us to do.

The Bible tells us that we don’t know when our appointment with death will be, we only know that it is inevitable. My advice is to be ready when that day comes. We must ready ourselves by having a relationship with Jesus Christ and doing all that God would instruct us to do.