Life or Death

I was already in route to a patient's house with several more lined up for a full day when I received the call that another one of my patient's family was gathering at his house as he was very close to death.  So, I made so quick changes and headed to his home where nearly a dozen cars were parked outside.

I knocked on the door, expecting it to be opened by a tearful son or daughter of the an but was greeted with a smile and brought to the Arkansas room, where the pt was chatting with one of our nurses as his family was visiting with one another in the living room.

While I had been warned he very likely would die before I got there, he definitely wasn't gasping for his last breath.  He greeted me warmly and we carried on a conversation about his faith, family and his days in the military.  I made an appointment to see him next week before I left.  Will he be there to keep it?  I don't know, but maybe.

When I returned to the office at the end of day, I was told of the death, not of a terminal patient, but of the son of a caregiver who no one suspected that he was anywhere near death.  It was a shock to everyone.  He seemed like he had his whole life ahead of him on one day and proved that it was all behind him on the next.

The point is that life or death lies before us at all times.  Which one is not for us to say.  You may have many years ahead of you or you may have all but a few days behind you; only God knows.  As James, the brother of Jesus, wrote, "Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (Js 4:13-14).

We really don't know.  Each day could be another step on an extended journey on earth or it could be your last.  What will you do with it?  Will you be a conduit of God's mercy and grace, or will you be a reservoir of all whatever you can gather for yourself?  Or as Jesus put it, "putting up treasures in heaven or gathering them on earth" (cf. Mt 6:19-20).

The truth is that every day is a mater of life or death.  We do not have days to waste in view of our terminal state that is not reserved just for hospice patients but rather "is is appointed that all shall die and then the judgment" (Heb 9:27).  Just when your appointment is set is for God alone to know, but set it is.  What do you want to be doing on that day?  Maybe you should do that today?  Jus' Say'n.