In recent years, two very close friends of mine received terminal cancer diagnoses that gave them, and me, an expectation of the approximate remaining number of their days. That knowledge gave each of us the opportunity to make more informed choices about how to walk through those remaining days.
None of us went skydiving, Rocky Mountain climbing, or bull riding.
The thing that impressed me about Greg is that, as near as I could tell, he didn't change a single thing about the way he was living life. I'm sure his family and closer friends detected some changes, but I didn't. He continued to work with energy, commitment, and professionalism. Whenever I visited him we still ate In-N-Out burgers, he grilled venison steaks, and we watched movies together that we'd both seen before. He played his guitars, played with his grandkids, and laughed loud and often. He loved his wife and adored his kids. I suppose Greg had made some poor decisions in his younger days, but he had made enough good decisions later that enabled him to die as he had lived.
My friend Peg had made choices in recent years that took her far away from her first home and family. Her love and service overflowed and blessed her extended family of Cameroonians and colleagues. As her future drew clearer and nearer, she returned to her first home and family, and the rest of her loved ones contrived opportunities to visit and embrace her many more times.
I had a great opportunity to make intentional choices about how I would live in light of my friends' impending deaths. I hate to admit it, but I lived differently knowing they were dying. I made better and more intentional choices about connecting with each of them when their days were numbered.
Today, one of my friends reposted a quote that said 66,000 people die each day in people groups that are currently unreached by the good news of Jesus Christ. These people are, for most of us, out of sight and out of mind. Their lives and deaths, typically, have no impact on our decisions—unless we make the choice to "live like they are dying."
This Saturday morning, Lord willing, I'll be winging my way toward about 50 million unreached people. Within a couple days, I'll be with a small group of people that began translating the Bible into one of the local languages of these people for the first time in history—just this week. My goal is to encourage them and to find ways to launch Bible translations in every language in this region this year. Time is precious.
I want to live like they are dying.
