GUYS, GET REAL

Yes, guys, get real--be a man--face up to it.  You are going to die.  (Whoa, didn't like this beginning.)  But I'm going to get very practical at the end in "being prepared" (Boy Scout motto)

Experience tells us this.  How many people do you know who are over 100 years old?  What happened to all the others who did not live that long?  Get real, guys, get real.  Will you be the exception?  Why you?  How so?

Jewish Wisdom Literature tells us so. 

3 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

(Ecclesiastes 3:3-8, NIV, biblegateway.com)

 

"A time to be born, and a time to die."  In the verses, a series of contrasts--but I really don't like the  pair with which he begins.  Couldn't he have eased us into it like a good modern author?  Nope, straight to the point.  Limits to our earthly existence--a beginning and an ending.

 

But guys don't really believe this?  Do they?  Nah.  I will beat the odds.  I will be the one exception.  Bee Gee's phrase from one of their disco songs, "I'm Gonna Live Forever."  (Maybe in the movie, "Saturday Night Fever.") 

 

So we go against experience and we go against 3000 year old wisdom literature, and say, "Not me."  Guys, get real!

 

So how do you prepare for death when you're fully alive--enjoying life?  Why even think about it?    Because we all have people in our lives who love us.  Because we all have people in our lives whom we love.  Because we all have purposes, things we want to achieve, but time is limited.  "A time to be born, and a time to die."

 

1. You quit thinking "I'm invincible"--nothing can happen to me.
2. You actually go to the doctor regularly (by the way, here I mean medical doctor not PhD).  As a boy, as a teen, as a 30's I can do it all guy, throughout life.   Diseases do not wait until we are 60 or 70 to hit us.  May I also add, you regularly go to your dentist for consistent oral care.  This way you protect those who love you and those you love.  Regularly may be defined by your doctor according to age.  Maybe a one year check on younger men, but every six months or so as we age.  Their the experts in medical areas--listen to them.  You're the expert in what YOU do.
3. If you're not sure the doctor is correct about something or if he doesn't listen to you, then seek a second or third opinion--another doctor, maybe in your city or a city nearby.
4. When a doctor gives you medications to take or things you are to do, follow them, unless they cause you complications.  If they do, call him back; tell him; get a change.  Everyone of us is uniquely made by God, and one medication doesn't work for us all.
5. Realize that God gave these physicians, nurses, medical people special knowledge, special education, special compassion to help us live life longer and more healthily.  I want life to be quantity, but I want life to be quality.  I want to live this life able to enjoy it to the utmost
6. Realize you are more than just a physical being.  You are also an emotional, social, spiritual being.  We all have emotions.  We all need friends and love and support.  And, I believe, strongly, we all need a relationship with the Creator of the first humans.  How did the first two humans get here?  Genesis says, "They were created by God; male and female, He created them." (Genesis 2)  For me, that makes sense that they had to have their start by Someone greater than they were.
7. As a Christian, that means for me, I investigate the truth claims of Jesus as found in the New Testament.  Could He really be the Jewish Messiah mentioned in the Old Testament that lived, died, and came alive again after death as written in the New Testament?  (That one's hard to believe--life again after dying!)

 

You are going to die.  But this God LOVES you.  He wants to guide you to make wise decisions in this life, even decisions about going to the doctor to love your loved ones better.  He would love to give you long life; but He is most interested about quality of your life.  A life that is really happy and fulfilled and productive.

 

But He also said, through Jesus in John 14:   “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God^[a]; believe also in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  (NIV, biblegateway.com)

 

Jesus lived.  Jesus died. Jesus came alive.  Jesus will return for those who belong to Him.  And they will live with Him and God forever--eternally--no ending to that life.

 

Be prepared!  Death will come.  Young, 30 somethings, 80's; it will come.  Take care of yourself and your loved ones by being practical in the meantime, but also prepare that if that day came today, you are also ready to meet God and live with Him forever.  Check out Jesus Christ.

 

Be prepared!

 

(By the way, I note that of the followers of this blog, most are women or most "likes" on Facebook from it are women.  I guess my style is just better read by them or they tolerate long posts.  But maybe some of them need to read this to you, their man, their husbands, their lovers, their friends)