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 Two
men sitting upon a park bench were exchanging life-long
observations. One rubbed his chin and sighed, "Have you
noticed," he asked, "that the vast majority of people
get sick before they die?"
The
second man thought about that for a while, then observed sagely,
"Yeah — very few die healthy."
I
might add that it is this way in the spiritual world too. Very
few die spiritually, at the height of their sound (healthful)
active Christian life. They first grow "weak and
sickly" and then they "sleep" the sleep of
spiritual death (1 Cor. 11:30). We do not "just
happen" to leave the Lord. We neglect our exercise, fail to
feed on the word, and carelessly mingle with the filth of the
world. When we "come down" with something, we make no
effort to correct it. We grow weaker; and when brethren urge us
to take the proper medicine we become angry, and shout that
there is nothing wrong with us. And finally we die! We are no
longer sensitive to the needs of the soul; our conscience is
seared and dead.
A
doctor once told me about taking a man's medical history for his
records. He asked the man if his parents were living, and was
told that both of them were dead. "And what was the cause
of their death?" he
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asked. The man thought for a moment,
then replied, "I don't really know: but anyhow, it wasn't
anything serious."
Apparently
the man meant their death was not caused by cancer, diabetes, or
something like that. But whatever is serious enough to take
one's life is serious enough. We may congratulate ourselves upon
our freedom from murder, and die of anger. We may never steal,
but die of covetousness. And some people seem to die of nothing
more serious than nothing. They just "rest" themselves
to death.
My
files contain this quotation:
ON THE PLAINS
OF HESITATION LIE
THE BLEACHENED BONES OF COUNTLESS MILLIONS WHO,
AT DAWN OF VICTORY, SAT DOWN TO
REST, AND RESTING, DIED!
Brother, death is serious, regardless of what
kills us.
Since "Very few die healthy" the
thing to do is stay healthy. This may take more doing than we
can muster in the physical realm, but we can live in Christ so
that to die is gain.
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