By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
You are going to die. Before you do, you will look back on your life and evaluate whether you’re satisfied with the end result.
With end-of-life eyes, you’ll survey the decisions you made, the priorities you lived by, and the relationships you were part of.
In some instances, you’ll smile, relive memories with joy and contentment, and feel you gave the best of yourself to the things you’ll realize in your final years mattered most.
In other instances, you’ll be left with regrets and wish for do-overs.
The dying have a lot to teach us. That’s the premise behind a Colorado-based podcast, “Dying To Tell You,” that interviews people facing the end of their lives.
“They have a clarity about what’s important to them that I think is instructive to all of us, whether we’re older or younger,” said Cody Hufstedler, the podcast host.
“Just because I don’t see my finish line right now doesn’t mean I can’t take what I’m learning from these people and apply it to my life now,” he said. “I don’t need to be dying to live an intentional life.”
So true. We should stop and ponder what will matter to us at the end of our lives and make that what matters now.
What will be important to you when you’re 70, 80, or older? In your last days, you won’t talk with your children and friends about how much money you made, the car you drove, or the square footage of your home.
You won’t gather your grandchildren around you and tell them your exploits as an athlete or the recipe behind their favorite dish. Those things won’t matter.
What you will talk about are memories you made with them. Summer vacations and family Christmases. Dance recitals and ballgames you attended instead of volunteering for optional overtime hours at work to buy more stuff.
You’ll chat about how good God is, how real heaven is, and how your greatest joy in life is that they are saved and walking with Jesus daily.
Pastor and author Judah Smith writes, “If that’s what matters at the end, shouldn’t it matter now? Why do we so easily allow things to consume our present that will be irrelevant in our future?”
Jesus told a story about a man who invested his waking hours toward building a successful farming business. His land produced a good crop, so he built bigger barns and planted more seed the next year.
He became so wealthy, he planned to retire and take it easy for the rest of his life. Eat, drink, and be merry.
But that very night, he died. Jesus prefaced his story with the punchline: “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
Ours don’t either. But we still fall into the same trap as the wealthy farmer. We neglect what matters now, and when we realize our mistake, we hope we can correct it.
There’s an old proverb that says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.”
Today is the pivotal word. Not next month, or next year, or after you retire. Today. It’s a sad reality that sometimes it is too late. Bridges have been burned. Choices have been made causing permanent damage. The bullseye has been missed, and now we’re out of arrows.
For most of you, the good news is it’s not too late to figure out what will matter at the end of your life and make it what matters now.
You will probably need to make some changes in your priorities, your calendar, and the amount of attention you give to God, your family, and friends.
But when you near the finish line, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief you did. Today is April Fools’ Day — a day marked by practical jokes and hoaxes. You may be tricked into believing some story you read or get pranked by a friend and feel foolish you fell for it.
It’s not a big deal. Just don’t get fooled into believing you can live by wrong priorities and neglect key relationships and then look back on your life in your senior years and be happy with the results.
You need to consider what will matter at the end of your life and make that what matters now. It would be foolish not to.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.