All That Matters, at the End

The following sobering reminder is from the August 2019 issue of Heartfelt magazine.  It was written by Rev. Dr. Howard S. Russell, Christian Healthcare Ministries' former President and CEO.

"A friend’s remark about a photo of his wife’s grandmother, taken in 1917 when she was 18 years old, brings to mind--and to my heart--the power of priorities well-placed or misplaced.

"The black-and-white photo shows her in a dress, sitting on a stool, and smiling slightly as she looks at the camera. When the shutter clicked it froze that moment in time.

"But time didn’t freeze. It passed, and quickly. The young girl in the photo went to be with the Lord in 1990 at age 91.

"'When that picture was taken in 1917, everything was in front of her, unknown, and an adventure waiting to happen,' my friend said. 'The future probably seemed like forever to her, because when you’re 18 a week seems like a month, a month is a year, and a year seems close to forever.'

"'Now, it’s not only behind her, her death is nearly 30 years in the past,' he said. 'When the Bible speaks of life being a mist, it’s not kidding.'

"No, it’s not. 'Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"--yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes' (James 4:14).

"We’re all in that same high-speed boat together. This calls into question what we focus on in the vaporous amount of time granted to us, the march of which we’re powerless to divert, and that will end faster than we, as 18-year-olds in a photo, could ever have imagined.

"For some people, politics is the be-all and end-all of their interests. Who controls what, where, and for how long is the most important thing in their lives.

"For others, sports reign. They live and die with the fortunes of their favorite teams. They know players’ statistics, wouldn’t miss a game, and depending on a win or loss they’re either on the mountaintop of joy or in the valley of despair.

"Personal relationships frequently dominate. When we’re madly in love and apart from the object of our affection, the minutes drag as if we’re back in 10th-grade algebra class (math wasn’t my favorite subject). When you’re together you don’t want to part, and when you’re apart you can’t wait to be back together.

"Careers, getting ahead, making money. We know what power that can hold. Many things are meaningful, but we know what should command  our lives as Christians is the Lord Jesus Christ. But sometimes the election, the game, the money, the ones we love here on Earth, or something else, crowds Jesus into the background. That’s our choice, not His.

"If Jesus is always in front--always the priority--then everything else falls into place as it should.

"A nanosecond after we take our last breath it will not matter to us if our preferred candidate won an election, if our team brought home a championship, if we got that promotion, or if we found or lost the love of our lives.

"All that will matter at that instant is if we lived for Christ . . . and did what He said to His disciples in John 14:15: 'If you love me you will keep my commandments.'

"Let’s love Him. Let’s keep His commandments. Let’s make a difference in others’ lives by displaying Christ in ours. At every age. With whatever amount of time is in front of us.

"That’s what matters, at the end."