If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. (Philippians 1:22, NIV)
This is not a devotion about dying. I promise. It’s a devotion about living. But you’re going to have to hang with me.
Before we turn in that direction, though, let’s confess that something is really nagging us as golfers right now: What’s happening to my game while I’m cooped up inside? I get it, this is the question golfers in the northern climes ask every year, but this is new territory for many of us and it’s starting to make us nervous. When the day finally comes that our courses are open and we can tee it up with friends, will we have any game at all?
Well, there are plenty of ways to be readier than you might otherwise be. Stretching is key, and maybe some pushups, situps, and squats. Strengthen your core and your legs, and you’ll be pleased with the result when you start playing again. Also, find space to swing a club or training aid. This will keep your “golf muscles” loose and ready.
And so, all this is to say that being ready when the day comes means preparing as you go along, well before it arrives. Which leads to living with dying in mind.
The very best way to be ready for your death is to live as though it could happen any time. Because it could. I’m not saying this is the classic context of getting an unbeliever to come face-to-face with the need for salvation. For even if we are saved, we are not doing a good job of living if we say to ourselves, “OK, I’ve got my death covered. Let’s go on living as we would until that day comes.”
Hospice doctor Ira Byock once listed four things we need to say to a dying person: “Please forgive me,” “I forgive you,” “Thank you,” and “I love you.” You can see that these are the very same things dying people hope to get a chance to say to others who visit in the final days or weeks of their life.
But here’s our biggest question of the day: Why wait? If every day, we kept “our need for apologies and forgivenesses…up to date” (author Rob Moll), we would not only be ready on the day we die, we would be ready to die any day. And what that means is that we would be living in deeply respected relationship with others. Never an unresolved argument, never a grudge, never a holding back in our gratitude. We would love and we would be loved.
(By the way, if you write to tell me you’ve never stopped playing golf where you live, that will not help!)
—
Jeff Hopper
April 28, 2020
Copyright 2020 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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