18plus: One month to live

15th September 2010 by Mark Soper

My church just concluded a series called "One month to live". It focuses on the question: "If you knew you had one month to live what would you change or do differently?"

Just to show that I've been taking this series seriously, last week Lauren (my wife) and I drew up our WILL. I know it's a bit morbid to think about death, but death will happen to us all. As we sat with our solicitor, I questioned my life and what is really important. When I'm dead my belongings will no longer matter.

A lot of the young adults in our church have been reading the daily devotions and involved in the small group discussion. The two most important things that most young adults at Menai would change, improve, or invest in, if they only had month to live are: relationships and greater intimacy with God.

1. Relationships with family, friends, church

ACTION: Tell people you love them, resolve conflict, forgive people and ask for forgiveness, let people know how much you love and appreciate them etc.

2. Greater intimacy with God (and a greater investment in your relationship with God)

ACTION: Get into the Word of God more, be obedient to his calling, make time to rest in God's presence, allow God to have total control of your life, ask for forgiveness, get right with God.

Despite relationships and intimacy with God being classed as "things to focus on with one month to live", they were often neglected through my teens and young adulthood.

Living the dash

If you've ever been to a graveyard or seen a tomb stone, you would know it has the person's date of birth, a dash (—), then the date of their death.

In this life, we all have a start date when we were born and we will all have an end date when we die. The important part to focus on, however, is not the start or the end, but the dash – the part in the middle which is called life.

If we live the dash – living life focusing and investing in relationships with people and a greater intimacy with God – we will live not only a pleasing life, but also a fulfilling life both for those people in our life and for the Kingdom!

"Teach us to number our days and recognise how few they are; help us to spend them as we should" (Psalm 90:12 TLB).

My prayer is that we would live with the peace and assurance knowing that our eternal destiny is secure and that we would invest in the two things that Jesus did: people/relationships and pleasing his Father!

By Mark Soper, Menai Corps Ministry Assistant

Comments

Yvonne Hunt

September 27, 2010 at 9:55am

So glad to read your thought provoking and wise words for each one of us and to know that you're continuing to use your God given gifts through the internet as well as your face to face ministry to youth (and others as well). I'm one of your greatest fans. God bless you, Mark.

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