The WAKE-UP Call
A couple of weeks ago while at my computer one evening, I experienced a thundering thought. This was not just a run of the mill kind of thought, but a genuine earth shattering thought. True, it was only a thought, but it was powerful enough to put a fright in me. I sat motionless and stunned at that thought and the reality of it actually happening. It’s one of those things we never think about because we think it’ll never happen, or if and when it does it’ll be far in the future.
A friend and classmate of mine experienced the dreadful reality about a week earlier, maybe that was the trigger for my thought. She lived alone and suffered from emphezema terribly to the point she had to be on constant oxygen. She was diabetic as suffered the effects of that disease as well.
One morning she awoke, just like every day before. She maneuvered herself into the wheelchair and proceeded to begin another ordinary day, going to the bathroom then wheeling herself into the kitchen for something to eat. Diabetics need to eat in order to keep the blood sugar from dropping too low. It was around 9am. The phone rang, it was her son, Charlie. They talked for a few minutes when she felt something not right. She asked Charlie to call her back in a few minutes that she needed to get some orange juice or something as she thought her blood sugar did indeed drop. She hung up the phone. Charlie called her back a few minutes later but his Mom didn’t answer the phone. Maybe she had to go to the bathroom, he thought. He called back and still no answer.
Ann was found by a neighbor slumped in the wheel chair. She never made it to the refrigerator for the orange juice. Imagine waking up to another normal day and suddenly you gently and without warning, pass away. Alone.
I stared at the computer as this wake-up thought struck the depths of my being. I was frozen with the reality that tonight I could be called home. It brings to mind what my son said a few weeks before he passed after suffering with cancer: "Ma, I don’t want to die", he said with a real fright. The idea of being on the threshold of one’s final breath on earth buries itself deep within the soul and clings as if struggling for life. The mind races at warp speed to all the familiar faces that have already succombed from whatever ailment was their portion. What will be mine? I have allergies and a constant nasal drip. My biggest fear is that I would drown in my own fluids in my sleep!
I recall an article I wrote a few weeks ago entitled: "What Is the Most Important Moment in Your Life?" Very few people had guessed rightly when posed with that question. We need to know and recognize that moment as the time to inventory the excess baggage we’re bringing to our Creator. He doesn’t want the baggage. He just wants us.
However, it’s the second most important moment in our lives when we should be taking stock of ourselves because we really don’t know when that ‘moment’ will come. We think we’re invincible just because we breathe. I believe that most of us on earth have no idea why we’re here. People pursue their careers, fight for their place in the sun, surround themselves with every kind of "success" toys, the Mercedes, BMWs, etc. But haven’t a clue of anything beyond their next breath. It’s sad because in the balance is the fate of their own soul. The time spent here is a forthtelling of how we will spend eternity.
Ahh, eternity...I guess that depends on whether one believes there is a God. Let’s just say that God’s existence isn’t dependent upon whether we believe it or not. When we go beyond that last breath we’ll find out soon enough. Like the old Greek philosopher once said: "I’d like to live my life believing there is an afterlife, because if it turns out in the end that there is none, I’ve lost nothing. On the other hand, if I live my life believing there IS no afterlife, and it turns out that there really is one, then I’ve lost everything."
I was with my Dad when he passed over. It was obvious that while he was still here, there was something keeping him here. Sporatic as it was, he was still breathing. But was it the oxygen keeping him here? Was it the mechanism of breathing keeping him here? Then, in an instant, he was no more. He’s gone. Gone? Where did he go? How do we know "he’s gone"? Gone where? To those who do not believe in God, I guess they just see that the person is ‘dead’. And, they are no more. Just plain dead, ready to be buried.
But to the believer, he’s gone home. Home is where we’ve always been destined. Heaven is home to those who believe and trust in their God. And what brings them home is love, how well they have loved.
This is the reality that puts our life into perspective when we get hit with the sudden thought that we might be checking out tonight. Like my friend, Ann, her moment came like a thief in the night... in the morning.
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