“You can play a lot of basketball in the last 60 seconds.”
-Ben Sasse
Maybe you think you’re at Halftime of the Game of Life. Maybe you’re still in the first quarter and it would seem like there’s “a lot of time left.” But we’re all on the clock. No one is guaranteed tomorrow. And no one makes it out alive. Ignoring the uncomfortable reality doesn’t eliminate the specter of mortality.
We would do well to heed the words of a dying man…stripped of all pretense…naked in raw honesty…the powerful testimony of Ben Sasse. (PLEASE watch his interview here).
“I know in the midst of this disease much more the truth of my finitude than I ever let myself believe in the past…Death is wicked. Death is evil…but it’s a touch of grace because it forces me to tell the truth. And the lie I want to tell myself is that I’m the center of everything. And I’m going to be around forever. And I can work harder and store up enough that I can atone for my own brokenness. I can’t.”
When your treasure is in Heaven, it makes it a lot easier to leave this world behind.
Degrees from Harvard and Yale. PhD. Senator. Author. And ultimately, none of the accolades or credentials can vanquish the Final Boss…but his hope is in the One who already did.
Diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, he says, “I don’t feel ready (to die), but to whom would I go?”
“Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world, but give me Jesus.”
And yet he fights. He fights for his son. He fights for his family. He fights for time with the real treasures…the treasures who will one day be reunited with him in celestial glory.
“I’ll run as fast as I can into your arms
Cuz I was created to be where You are
There’s an ache in my heart
And he fights the good fight, straining toward the finish line, yearning to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” You and I would do well to minimize the distractions, join the race, and live like we, too, are dying. Because we are.
But it’s when we take stock of our inevitable death that we truly begin to LIVE.
Thank you, Ben. I needed this perspective. May we all write a similarly triumphant epitaph in the Final Chapter of our lives. And when the Final Buzzer sounds after those last 60 seconds, we can be confident of eternal victory.
1 Corinthians 15:53-58
