How far would you go?

In the span of one week my daughter and my husband both presented an idea to me. Neither one of them had an ulterior motive they simply wanted to share something they had thought of with me. And neither one of them had discussed what they’d thought of with the other.

My daughter was the first one to share her thoughts with me. She came to me one day and told me of something she’d been thinking about. It went something to the effect of ‘can you imagine what it would be like if you knew the day every person was going to die but you didn’t know your own death date?’

I don’t remember how the rest of the conversation went. It was just one of those discussions that happen as we go about our lives seeming to have no significant meaning and comes to an end.

But then less than a week later my husband presented the same idea to me. Only he did it in a way that held much more meaning. It wasn’t just an abstract idea. And as he told me of what he had been thinking that day, I remembered the discussion with our daughter, and then it took on a deeper meaning for me because what were the odds that two different people would come to me with the same idea in less than a week, not having shared the idea with each other?

My husbands thoughts on that went much deeper than our daughters had. Where she had voiced the idea, where she had wondered how it might affect the person that knew…my husband had taken it into Christianity.

What if we had the ability to know exactly when every other person on earth was going to die but we couldn’t know our own death date?

The very thought is staggering and enough to drive a person crazy. But…what if?

On the surface I think of what I would do if I saw that my husband or my child was going to die today. What would I do differently that I might not otherwise do? If I knew that my mother or sister was going to die today…what might I do? Would I try to spend today with them? Would I call them and tell them I loved them? Would I spend the day in tears waiting for the moment I would discover them dead or get a phone call informing me they were gone?

What would I do?

But that wasn’t the idea my husband presented to me. His was different and more lasting. It was more about the spirit and less about the body. It was more about eternal and less about the earthly.

At the time that we discussed it it was simply something my husband thought of, something our daughter had thought of, something we talked about at the time. We discussed how it would make a good book or movie but wasn’t something a Christian should be a part of because it go into paranormal or science fiction. But we both agreed that it could be good if it wasn’t anti-Biblical.

I remember in my teens watching a television program about a man that got the newspaper a day ahead of when it was supposed to come out. Basically this man knew the future every day. As a result that paper controlled his life. He was always trying to stop things from happening when people got hurt or killed. He had a friend that always wanted to use it to win the lottery.

It was a show I enjoyed watching way back when. It isn’t something I would watch today but as I think about those conversations with my husband and our daughter I’m reminded of it. Back then I used to wonder what it would be like to know what was going to happen a day before it happened. Today, weeks after those discussions with my husband and our daughther, I’m reminded of them. Of the what if of those discussions. What if a person really could know the day of death for everyone on earth except themselves?

It’s never going to happen but what if it did? And what if that person wasn’t just any person but a true child of Christ?

How far would they go?

What would they do?

If that person could somehow see…maybe through a little bubble above everyones head, maybe with a date stamped on their foreheads…the day that person would die. What would they do?

As a Christian they would know that that person’s day to die couldn’t be changed. There would be no point in telling them to stay home on the date their death was to happen. In that show I used to watch the main characters often saved people from death simply by stopping whatever it was that was supposed to happen to result in them dying. As a Christian I know that isn’t possible. Even if one method of dying could be stopped because their day had come another method would be used to end their life. And even that isn’t going to happen. The Lord has every persons end planned before their beginning happens.

But for just a moment let’s go with the what if…

What if this Christian, who knows it will do no good to try and change the day of death for anyone, could see the day they die. What would they do?

As a Christian, as a person, as a wife, husband, son, daughter, mom, dad…we all have people close to us whose souls we hurt for, whose salvation we beg for. Then there are all the other people out there that we hurt for but not in the same way we do our loved ones. Our earthly love for certain people ensures we hurt a little deeper for them than for strangers.

Imagine this person that has given the ability to know when everyone would die but they didn’t know when they would. How much would this person try to share the gospel with those around them? They might pay more attention to those dying within the next few days than with those whose deaths were years away. How much would they pay more attention to sharing the gospel with loved ones? How much more diligent would they be?

Now imagine for a moment that that person is you. How far would you go to tell those you know, those you love about Christ, the true Christ? How far would you go to give them the gospel?

If you saw that their day to die was tomorrow…what would you do? How far would you go? How much would you hurt? Would you quit telling them of Christ, quit telling them to cry out to Him, quit telling them to beg Him to save them, just because they don’t want to listen? Would you hush and quietly go your way if they told you they didn’t want to hear anymore? Or would you risk their wrath, would you push them further than they wanted to go to try and bring them to the point that the Lord might save them?

What if you walked into an airport and saw lines of people waiting to board a plane? What if 99% of those lines had people with different dates for their deaths but one of them…everyone had the same date, the very day that is was? What if the loved one whose death date you had been watching rapidly approach was in that line…this was their day to die. And it was the day that many others would die with them? Would you follow after them telling them again, in desperation, to repent and believe, to cry out to Christ? Would you fall to your knees and beg them? Would you stop crying out to them and cry out to Christ on their behalf? Would you stop trying to reach that person alone and start speaking instead to the entire line of people about to board that plane? Would you tell them all what you’d been trying to tell your loved one, hoping, praying, that even one of them might believe so that the Lord could save them?

What would you do?

How far would you go?

If your loved one scoffed at what you said, made fun of you for begging, got angry with you and told you to leave…would you give up on them? Would you turn your attention to the little girl with the sweet smile? To the old man that was eager to talk to you? To the woman holding a baby on her hip? Would you speak to all of them, beg the crowd instead of just your loved one? Would you pray for the souls of the children that were too young to understand?

What would you do?

Would you stop talking when the airport personnel told you that you were making a scene and disturbing their customers? Would you grow quiet when they threatened to throw you out? Or would you climb up on the ticket counter and continue to share the gospel and beg the people about to board the plane to repent and believe?

How far would you go?

The whole idea of a person knowing anyone’s death date is impossible. There are times that we think we know the exact day a person will die. About nine years ago I had a great aunt in the ICU on life support. The hospital staff and doctors told us the only thing keeping her alive was the machines she was hooked to. They asked us to make a decision about her life, told us if we disconnected her from the machines she would die. Her son’s made the choice to turn the machines off. The hospital chaplain was called in. Prayers were said. We were told exactly what to expect. She was going to die. There was no getting around it she couldn’t live without the help of the machines she was hooked to. Painfully we admitted that we understood and stood close to her side as the machines were turned off. Within minutes of being disconnected from the machines my aunt woke up and began talking to us.

At the time we were expecting her to breathe her last she was gaining strength. The doctors had been so sure they knew she would die that day. They were wrong. She lived another year.

A friends grandson was found floating in a swimming pool a couple of years ago. He was rushed to the hospital where he was put on life support. Family surrounded him, flying in from overseas to be near him. A week after he was found in the pool the family made the decision to disconnect him from all life support. They were told that his brain was dead and he would die within minutes of the machines being turned off. He didn’t. That little boy held on to life for another day. The doctors had said he was dead, that he couldn’t live on his own, but he did.

My aunt did.

So sure were the doctors that they knew when death would come that they told the family there was no hope of life in their loved ones. Only they were proven wrong.

No person can know the day and time of another’s death. Even when we think we can we can be wrong. Even medical professionals can be proven wrong. The Lord is the giver and taker of life, only He knows the day and time a person will die.

But what if a person could know?

How far would they go?

How far would you go?

After admitting that you couldn’t change when they were going to die what would you do?  Knowing that the only thing you could do is spend time with that person and try to get them to cry out Christ? How far would you go?

Would you give up when they got angry? Would you quietly spend the last day or days with them knowing they didn’t want to hear what you had to say, praying hard for the Lord to save them? Or would you tell them you love them enough to make them angry, love them enough to push them past where they want to be, love them enough to share the gospel whether they want to hear it or not?

How far would you go?