If You Knew You Were Dying . . .

Mike Hosey, Elder

If you knew you were dying would you hold back? 

Most of us easily answer that question with, “No, I wouldn’t hold back.”  We wouldn’t hold back on a whole bunch of things. Some of us would sky dive, and some of us would climb mountains, and some of us would love more, and some of us would be kinder, and some of us would study our bibles, and too many of us would indulge sinful desires.   

The reason is simple. Whenever we have a limited resource, we make a great effort to use that resource to the fullest. When time is the limited resource, you simply can’t hold back on those things that you need to get done.  Think about the last time you were at work, and your boss gave you a mountain of stuff to do before a deadline that seemed as impossible to meet as roller skating up Kilimanjaro by lunchtime.   Or think about the last time you were on vacation and you only had a few days to do all the things you wanted to do. In both those cases you prioritized rather efficiently. And then after you prioritized, you didn’t allow yourself to be distracted by silly water cooler gossip conversations at work, or wasteful diversions on your vacation – you knew that doing so would rob you of precious and finite time necessary to complete the tasks at hand! 

By LetsgomusicStyle, via Wikimedia Commons

James tells us that we don’t have time to waste by spending all of our wealth on self-indulgence at the expense of hardworking poor people. In other words he tells us not  to hold back our blessings (James 5:1-6).  He also tells us not to hold back our patience (James 5:6-11), or our integrity (James 5:12), or our prayers (James 5:13-20).  

All of those things are bound by time, and the truth of the matter is that we have a limited amount of time to complete the tasks that God has given us here on earth. So, let me ask you again, if you knew you were dying would you hold back?  Before you answer that question, think about this fact:  you are dying! At the moment of your birth, your body began a march toward death. Some of you will reach the end of that march in decades, but some of you might reach it tomorrow. Are you holding back from those experiences and tasks that God wants you to have and complete? Because you really don’t have time for that.