It’s Not My Time Yet!

“It’s Not My Time Yet!” I realize sports news is rarely world changing, but it is sometimes life changing. Those 5 title words were among the last texted by Eduardo Rivera in response to a friend’s warning to “be careful, man!” Shore patrol soon thereafter recovered Rivera’s dead body along with elite and immensely popular pitcher Jose Fernandez along the jetties at Government Cut in Miami Beach. So much for late night speed boat rides. So much for well-intended warnings. We can be so certain of tomorrow, never giving a thought that life can eclipse to death at the turn of a head, a blink of an eye, the “send” of a text. I once despised attempted “scare tactics” which well-meaning people used to caution me of eternal hell, damnation and separation from a God in whom I was disinterested. I’m older now, and perhaps an ounce wiser. I’ve witnessed “surprise” deaths. We like to think our lives will last a normal “span.” But babies die. Pitchers die unexpectedly. Cancer grows. Cars crash. So James in scripture warns, “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.” Have we become too sophisticated or perhaps remain too timid to warn our friends about eternal life and death? Has the devil made us so intimidated and fearful of rejection that we cannot say “be careful man, there is something to consider about what God says about life, death and eternity?” As certain as we should be about our salvation and what lies ahead, we should be as certain about what rejecting God will mean. Who would watch passively and say nothing as an uninformed friend drove their car towards a cliff? I’m not an evangelist and probably you’re not either. But I know people and love people. Can we not find the time and the words to gently ask them to consider that there is a God who loves them, has a beautiful plan to reveal, and that a new kind of life, real life, is found in relationship with Him? Think About It.