A respected friend recently died after a heroic, three-year-long struggle following a disabling stroke. At the funeral, I overheard a man conclude, "We all have to die sometime. It is good to die well."

I almost wanted to scream, "No, it is good to live well. Dying well is the least important part of our living well." This person chose to focus on my friend's death, not on the eighty-plus years that he had risen above a marginalized upbringing to become a loving, kind, generous husband, father, grandfather, and well-loved friend.

Years ago, when I was a pastor in Ontario, Canada, a member of my church went on to be with Jesus, leaving a grief-stricken wife after sixty years of marriage. She had found him dead, lying in their barn, not knowing how many hours he had been lying there, while she was inside watching television. For years after, she berated herself for not checking the barn for him sooner. After a wonderful marriage, raising a family together, and being kind and loving members of both community and church, she couldn't get past focusing on the hour of his death.

I remember being shocked to read for the first time an interchange between Jesus and a follower:

Matthew 8:21-22 – Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." (NIV)

It doesn't sound like the compassionate Jesus I know, was my first thought. He might have had an elderly or sick father, and his father's passing might yet be a long way off. On deeper reflection, I realized that what Jesus was emphasizing was that there is nothing more important than following Jesus, even more important than the death of a parent, and we must do all in our power to focus on what Jesus is calling us to do, all He calls us to become, and living the abundant life. "I have come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10 NKJV)

Jesus is calling us to live nothing short of our very best life in the here and now, to use all the gifts that God has bestowed upon us in order to make this world better for our journey through it, to call others into that deep and personal relationship with God that gives us meaning and abundant life, and in Jesus own words, to "Love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12b NKJV)

Prayer: Loving God, help us to get beyond the urge to get ahead and the concern of our own mortality and that of others, so that we can truly live the abundant, loving life which Jesus exemplified, and into which He calls us. Amen.

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About the author:

Rick Potter <rpotte@hotmail.com>
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
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