If you had one day left to live, what would you do? It isn’t something we necessarily want to think about, but you’ve probably heard the question before.
Let’s change it up a bit.
If you had 40 days left to live, what would you do?
Yesterday, the world celebrated Easter. To some, it just meant spring had sprung and hunting for Easter eggs. For those of us who are Christ-followers, we know it as “Resurrection Sunday” – the day our Lord rose from the grave.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. Jesus remained on the earth for 40 more days.
What did He do during that time?
After his death, he presented himself alive to them in many different settings over a period of forty days. In face-to-face meetings, he talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God. As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but “must wait for what the Father promised …And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.” (Acts 1:3-4,8 MSG)
While we don’t necessarily know all the details, we do know this: the last 40 days of Jesus’ life looked really similar to all of His days before that. His first 30 years were in obscurity, but the 3 years of public ministry were spent teaching and serving. He would often spend time with just the disciples. In the last 40 days, He continued that pattern … talking about the Kingdom, eating with them, and encouraging them.
If I knew I had only 40 days left on earth, I’m pretty sure my life would look pretty different than it does now. What about you? That’s not to say that what we are doing now doesn’t have purpose. I am thankful for my job – a girl’s gotta eat, right? But most of us would agree that going to the office would not make it on our to-do list.
Let’s pause for a minute right now and think about some things:
Who is in your inner circle? I’m not talking about Facebook friends or Instagram followers (even though those are fun). I am talking about people who you really know and they really know you. People who show up at your door with food when you are sick. People who call just to say hi and check on you. People who have seen you at your worst and love you anyway.
In the past 40 days, how much time have you spent with them? Carey Nieuwhof (pastor/podcaster) said “… the people who should get most of your premium time rarely ask you for it.” Hobbies and volunteering are great, but if our core people aren’t getting any of our time, we need to make some adjustments.
What was your last conversation with them like? If that conversation was the last time you would ever speak to them, would you change anything? In His final one-on-one conversations recorded in scripture, Jesus reassured a doubting disciple (John 20:24-29) and reinstated another one (John 21). They may have spent 3 years with Jesus, but that last conversation was a game-changer.
If you have followed our ministry for a while, then you know that my senior pastor died last year from Covid. Just a few weeks before his death, we received a letter from Pastor Ricky, thanking us for the work we had been doing at the church. That letter is now framed in our office. I will forever be grateful that he took the time to encourage us. We had no idea those would be the last words we would ever hear from him directed to us.
If they had to describe how they knew you loved them, what would they say? In a day when we use the word “love” to express how we feel about tacos and coffee (yes, I am guilty), what would set them apart? Even if we aren’t the affectionate type (guilty again), there are countless ways we can show our love to people (cue “The 5 Love Languages here). Knowing your love language is great (how YOU receive love) … knowing their love language is even better (how THEY receive love).
Your next thought might be … “Well, if I knew I was dying soon, I would make sure I covered all of those bases”. The fact is, we may have 40 days, 40 years or 4 minutes … most of us don’t know how much time we have left on this earth.
We would be wise to pray as David did, “LORD, let me know my [life’s] end and [to appreciate] the extent of my days; Let me know how frail I am [how transient is my stay here].” (Psalm 39:4 AMP)
Jesus came to earth on a mission. He finished His work on the cross, but lived every day after that with continued intentionality. From the beginning, He knew His time was limited. The same is true of us. What do we want our final days to look like? Let’s start living that way now.
~Anu
