Spending Your Last Days on a Swing
If you had a choice, what two things would you choose to be doing in your final days here on earth? If circumstance allowed, what would you choose to do to make the world a better place and find peace?
When I heard Alex Trebek, the beloved host of the game show Jeopardy, sat on his backyard swing watching the horizon with his wife Jean, as he wanted to do on his final day, I was struck by how blessed he really was, and how much of a blessing he was to us.
Yes, he had pancreatic cancer. Yes, his loved ones will miss him. Yes, his millions of fans, including me, will miss him. But I was happy to hear his final hours were with family and friends, and he was alert and not in pain, according to the show's executive producer, Mike Richards.
The intelligent, witty, and soft-spoken Trebek obviously loved his work on Jeopardy. He kept working much of the time through his bout with the disease, and continued to do the show until just weeks before his death. But in the end, he chose another love of his, peacefully sitting on his backyard swing with his wife.
Finding Who You'll Sit With on Your Favorite "Backyard Swing."
It's a harsh reality of life. Many of us will not be able to continue with our life's work into our final days due to illness. It's an equally unfortunate reality that many of us will not metaphorically or literally have a backyard swing to find peace on our final day.
You nor I have a crystal ball that will predict when we will die, the circumstances of our passing, and with whom we will spend our final moments. That being the case, you and I need to decide right now who will definitely be at our side on our favorite "backyard swing" during our final days?
You can decide right now, today, with certainty, who will be at your side, regardless of the timing or circumstances of your death. You can decide to accept Jesus Christ's invitation to sit on your "backyard swing" with him, while there's time to enjoy time with him, looking at the horizon, a glorious eternal horizon without beginning or end.
In God's Words
"Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always." (1 Chronicles 16:11)
"He says, 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'" (Psalm 46:10)
"Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)
Also read: Psalm 1:2, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Romans 8:28
Also visit: You Are Not Alone as You Walk the Valley
In Your Words
If you haven't accepted Jesus' invitation to sit on your "backyard swing" with him as one of his children, why not?
We all will die some day. And none of us know how or when. Are you looking at that prospect with fear because of the way you are living, or with anticipation because you know where you will spend eternity?
Imagine you are sitting on a backyard swing with the creator and sustainer of all that exists, the one who went to the Cross for you. Meditate on what you would say.
In the Words of Others
"As I go into a cemetery I like to think of the time when the dead shall rise from their graves. Thank God, our friends are not buried; they are only sown," Dwight L. Moody
" I don't so much pray that my death will be without pain, but that it will be without doubt." John Piper
