Arise and Call Yourself Blessed

Psalm 39:4-5

Show me, O Lord, my life?s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man?s life is but a breath.

?rsz_badlands

I am so glad that I have no idea what will happen in the remaining days of my life. I know I will die, unless the Lord comes back first and snatches me up, but thankfully I don?t know what will be my demise. Cancer, heart attack, drowning, plane crash, car wreck, choking, dementia, ALS, MS, COPD, MD? the list of accidents and diseases go on and on.

 

One day we are a walking picture of health and the next we?re going to the doctor because we just can?t seem to get over a scratchy throat. In the following days cancer of the tonsils is diagnosed. After months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments the cancer is supposedly gone, or is it just hiding, waiting to sprout like a seed potato?

 

At 55 years old a friend is short of breath and has continuous heartburn. Test after test reveals no obvious reason until one day a lingering pain in the chest finds him in the emergency room. A heart cauterization shows four arteries one hundred percent blocked and a fifth artery partially obstructed. Some speak of how awful for a man so young to have such extensive heart disease. I say how lucky that the man didn?t have a massive coronary and die like my daddy did at age 50!

 

Another man while working as a volunteer fire fighter is doing what emergency workers do; he is helping put out a vehicle fire when downed power lines from a recent storm electrocute him. The man was 36 years old and left behind a wife and young son. Do you think for one minute this man thought when he kissed his wife and child goodbye that morning he?d never see them on this side of heaven again?

 

Then there?s a young father in his late thirties who has stomach pain. After tests he is told he has Non-Hodgkin?s Lymphoma. This man, too, has a young son and loving wife. And, he is the only child of his mom and dad. The parents wither in sorrow, praying for their only son, begging God to spare him and take them instead. A parent should not out live the child, but we all know there are no guarantees.

 

My friend with the tonsil cancer never thought five months after she had been declared cancer free another tumor would be found in her sinuses? There is only one thing for certain in this life and that is we shall all perish. Our days are fleeting, a mere handbreadth.

 

Every morning when we get out of bed we should be so thankful for our good health. We should arise and call ourselves blessed, never taking a day for granted because in a twinkle of the eye our circumstances could change. My prayer for all is that when that dreaded day of sickness comes to us we will be of great faith and courage. And, above all else I pray that in the end whether taken by illness, accident, or pass peacefully in your sleep that you know? that you know, where you?ll spend eternity. Our span on earth is but a breath. Eternity is forever.

 

Leave a Comment

Message:

 

Previous post:

Next post: