In a single breath

I received a letter in the mail recently that had a statement in it that I found profound. The writer of the letter, while speaking of clinging closer to Christ, wrote…”life is over in a breath.”

We often hear questions like, what would you do if you knew you would die tomorrow or next week. We hear things like…life is short. But I’ve never heard anyone say that life is over in a breath. Oh, what power those words hold.

Life is over in a breath.

We are but one breath away from death. And we never know when that last breath may come. About fifteen years ago I knew a young woman that went to sleep one night and was found dead the next morning. There were no health problems, no foul play. She simply went to sleep and failed to wake up. Her final breath came with no warning that night. Her family and friends were shocked at her sudden death and left grappling with all that those left behind must come to terms with.

When I was in my teens I knew a girl that had a baby and another on the way before we graduated high school. Everyone spoke badly about this girl. But about a year after we graduated they all started saying something entirely different. The same people that had said how awful it was for her to have babies in her teens all of a sudden started saying how wonderful it was that she had had them so young. You see their change of heart came at the sudden death of this young mother. With no warning she had a stroke and died.  It was so sudden that she dead by the time family, who heard her fall, could get to her from the next room.

Poof!

Just like that her life was over. In a single breath she went from living to dead. Her days on earth had reached there end and her eternity began.

In a single breath.

About ten years ago I knew a woman that was killed in a car accident. She was healthy. Had was appeared to be a good life, married with two children. She was always friendly and a joy to be around. And then one night she was gone. I know the details of the accident she was involved in but I do not know if her death was sudden or if she lingered in her injuries for a time before her life was over. What I do know is that she did not leave the scene of that accident alive.

And I know that even if her death could be seen coming by anyone that might be around her, her death still came in a single breath. She breathed one last time and then her time on earth was over.

I do not know the condition of any of these young women’s souls. I don’t even know the basics of their beliefs. I wasn’t close to any of them although they were in my life for a time. And now as I think of how our lives are over in a breath…I remember how those young women died so unexpectedly, so suddenly.

Our human selves don’t like to think of things like this happening. Our human selves don’t like to think of death at all but it’s there before every one of us. Our days are limited. We are put a vapor in the wind of this earth. Here for a short time and then gone.

In a breath…life ends.

I recently saw a book by a reformed Christian company about a man with only seven days to live. I haven’t read the book but I understand it to be about a man that does all the things a person might do if they knew they would have only one week to live. I almost want to read it just to see what he did.

Did he hold his wife and children as close to 24/7 as he could? Did he write them letters of goodbye? Did he sit in a ‘church’ building day after day? Did he spend hours in prayer?

Years ago I saw a movie about a woman that was misdiagnosed and told she was about to die. This woman pulled her entire life savings out of the bank and went on an extravagant vacation alone. Her sole purpose was to enjoy every dime of the money she had spent her life working for. That was how that woman chose to face the approaching final breath of her life, indulging her every whim.

Somehow I doubt the man in the book from the Christian company would face the end of his days the same way. But how did he face that looming final breath? I don’t know because I don’t own that book.

But I can well imagine. And I imagine that he might indulge the ache in his heart. Did he have a wife? How much time did he spend with her in that final week? Did he have children? How many hours did he hold them in his lap? Did he write letters of goodbye to each of them? Did he sell all he had to provide for them once he was gone? Did he grab his Bible and tell them look…LOOK!...while shaking the Bible before them. Did he tell them that here, in these pages, in these words, is all that matters in life? Did he tell them that as his final breath approaches, his life has been reduced to heaven or hell? That it no longer matters if he ate mush or steak, that it no longer matters if his roof leaked or if he had a new car or walked everywhere he went, did he tell them that as that final breath approaches only the condition of his soul matters? That once he’s dead his life on earth will only matter in the memories of those he leaves behind. Did he tell them that they have the memories of him that they do because he lived for Christ or because he spent his life seeking this world and rejecting Christ?

What did he tell them as that dreaded…or much anticipated…final breath approached?

Or did he tell them anything at all? Maybe he had no family or maybe his family had long since written him off. Maybe he spent every one of those final days in prayer and in reading Scripture.

I don’t know what he did because I haven’t read the book. And it doesn’t matter what he did because it’s fiction but…

That final breath is coming for each and every one of us.

I was told of a man that passed away and on the day of his funeral someone traveling through the area stopped at the ‘church’ for the sole purpose of using the bathroom. This person was required to sign the guestbook upon entering the ‘church’. I don’t remember whether this man stayed for the funeral or not but I do recall that some time later the man was contacted to be told that he had become the sole heir of the deceased man. Because of a need to use the bathroom, and because the deceased man, before his death, made arrangements for his estate to be split between all in attendance at his funeral, this man became the sole inheritor.

I don’t know if that story is true or not, it’s just something someone told me. I do recall that the point was that you never know when your ship might come in…so to speak. But I can’t help thinking of it in different terms. That deceased man had no one on earth that cared that he took his last breath and he most likely knew it, so he arranged for those in attendance at his funeral to inherit his wealth. In death he did what he had probably not done in life, he gave to others. He cared. He shared.

His final breath came and there was no one there to care that it happened. And he had nothing but his wealth to leave behind.

I was told of another story along those lines but different. This one is of a man who inherited his aunts Bible. I want to say the will stipulated that he got all her treasures, or something like that. The man took the Bible home and stuck it on a shelf. He didn’t open it, didn’t read it. Through the years the man struggled through many things including extreme poverty. At some point, many years after his aunts death, the Bible was opened. I don’t remember if it was him or someone else that opened it, but there, tucked in the pages of the Bible were thousands of dollars in hundred dollar bills.

That was the aunts treasure. I have to think it lay not in the Bible but in the money it contained. After all, who hides a treasure in a Bible?

This is another story that I don’t know if it’s real or not but I do know that the nephew missed out on the greatest treasure. His aunt, in her final breath, went from this world to eternity. Where her soul went, I do not know. Maybe she was saved and her eternity was in heaven or maybe she wasn’t saved and faced a far different eternity. But…her nephew did not gain from the wonderful inheritance she left him. His aunt may, or may not, have intended only to leave him the money hidden within the Bible, but in leaving him that earthly treasure she also left him a far greater treasure. She left him the Word of our Lord…and he never even opened it. If he had, he might have found something worth far more than the money tucked within its pages.

Our lives are over in a breath. Where do we put the importance of our life? Did your day go bad because you lost your keys, the computer crashed, and the dryer went out? Was it a good day because you got an unexpected check, someone treated you to lunch, and you bought that trinket you’ve been longing to own? Is your home not up to standards because the front porch sags or the doors squeak? Are you proud of your home because it’s the biggest on the block, because you recently painted it, and you had someone come out and landscape your yard?

Our lives are over in a breath.

When that breath comes will it matter where your keys were, how much money you had, or what your house looked like? Our human minds want to say that when that final breath leaves our bodies what matters will be those we leave behind and what we leave them with. Will they be glad to see us go or will they weep and mourn our loss? And that does matter…for them. It matters for those that we will leave behind.

But for me…for you…for each and every one of us…individually….for ourselves…the only thing that will matter when that final breath leaves our body is the condition of our soul. Whether we were given salvation or not will be our only concern at that time.

Heaven or hell.

            That is what will matter. After a lifetime on earth, in the end, it will all come down to those two very real things.

            And in a single breath that could be all that matters to us anymore.