Westside Church of Christ  Stephenville, Texas

“IT’S NOT FAIR, IT’S NOT FAIR!”

“It’s not fair!” was the young lady’s response when the doctor told her that she had only a few weeks to live. Her cancer was filling her body and would soon take her life. With tears in her eyes she told the doctor that it just wasn’t fair and it is not. She is only 24, she hasn’t married she hasn’t experienced the joy of finding her true love; she hasn’t experienced the happiness of holding her own baby in her arms and watching it grow. Her family stands around her married with children and grandchildren and all have lived longer than she will.

Her mother tearfully related her words to her own father and I wept with her and all of her family for their sorrow and for the sorrow of the young lady now having to face the appointment all men must face.

As I waited and watched I thought about two things.

First I thought of how much I hated the devil; God’s enemy, man’s adversary who wants nothing more that to shame and defeat God by destroying His creation. You see the devil started all of this when he deviously tempted Eve into disobeying God. Satan unleashed sorrow, pain, suffering and death into a world that was “good” when through his temptation sin came into the world.

I hate the devil because it is his fault that we have to die, that sickness occurs, that wars exist and mankind thrives on doing harm to him self and to others. It is the devil’s fault that we have to sit by the sides of those we love and watch them suffer with illness or injury; it is the devil’s fault that we have to stand over the graves of those we love, young and old. It’s the devil’s fault that our prisons are filled with our young men and women and many with little or no hope of changing their lives for the better. It’s the devil’s fault that children live in single parent homes because mother or daddy ran off with someone else or because mother didn’t/couldn’t marry the father of her child(ren). It’s the devil’s fault that children are molested by lecherous men; drowned by drunken mothers or beat to death by drugged boyfriends who simply want them to stop crying.

I HATE THE DEVIL and I am so glad that Jesus has defeated his plan to destroy me and I am so happy that there will be a day when the devil will no longer be a threat to any righteous soul and all the consequences of sin will be removed.

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But I also thought of death itself. The vast majority of us never have to watch the “stop watch” of time swing toward the end of our life. Yes, all of us know that we must face death. But our own death becomes something abstract and far in the future, even when we grow older and know that the possibility of our departure is nearing. However, this young lady knows that in just a few short days her life will be at an end. She could even count the minutes, the hours, yea verily, the seconds until her passing.

How would I react to such news? I hope that my reaction would be the same as it is each morning I awaken and look in the mirror and tell myself “you must live today as if it is your last day.” Because the reality is today might well be the last day of our life. Jesus may come before the day ends – for death may come upon us from any number of causes. We simply do not know. The question that Peter asks should fill our minds constantly; “Therefore since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of person ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?” (2Peter 3:11)

If we knew that we had only a few days to live before we met our Creator and Judge, how would we live? My thinking is this: that we’d all be doing our best to make our life right so that we would be presentable to God. Shouldn’t we then, if we don’t know if today is our last day, be doing the same thing? Living righteous and godly lives so that when we stand before the Master, He will recognize us as one of His children?

Remember those who suffer sorrow and heartache in this world. Pray for them and comfort them and remember whose fault it is. But also learn to live each day as if we knew that Jesus was going to call us to judgment today. Love Him. Glorify Him. Obey His word.

buddy