Some people think we live, we die, and we are buried, end of story. They don’t concern themselves with existence beyond the grave. But their perspective on life and death is far from the truth. The Bible declares that things don’t end when we die. But we will spend eternity somewhere after we die. Our relationship with Christ solely determines where that place will be.
A funeral I attended some years ago got me thinking about this. The deceased was an acquaintance of mine. In fact, we worked together for many years. He was 18 years older than I was. I did not know him enough to say we were friends.
A few days before he died, a friend called me. He asked me if I knew the now-deceased person was under Hospice care. I told him I did not. Actually, the caller was not sure if the person in Hospice was the one whom we knew by that name, or if it was someone else with the same name.
The next day he confirmed that it is was who he thought it was. I told the caller I would go and see the person. I was not sure of his relationship with Christ. We had spoken about church or religion a couple times, but not in any depth. I looked forward to an opportunity to inquire of his relationship with Christ.
But two days later, on the morning of the day I planned to go to Hospice, I received a call informing me the man had died the night before. I was shocked since I had seen him about six months ago in the waiting area of a doctor’s office. There, we talked about 30 minutes. He seemed fine. He had his usual sense of humor. But he did mention that he had some swelling in a leg that would not go down.
But What Was His Relationship with Christ?
The deceased man was a nationally known runner. According to him, for his age bracket, he ranked number three in the nation. He used to bring clips from newspapers at work to show colleagues. He loved running against someone younger than he was so he could boast about how he “smoked” the person around the track. At the funeral service, attendees talked a lot about his bragging.
But what stood out to me was the fact that no mention of any church affiliation existed—even in this man’s youth. He accomplished a lot at work. At the peak of his professional career, he held the second highest position in our large Engineering Division. And he was a nationally known runner.
Of course, being a preacher, my main concern was with his relationship with Christ. I have no idea what that relationship was at the time of his death. But given his many accomplishments in life and the total silence about his involvement in church, I could not help but entertain this most sobering fact: No matter what we accomplish in this life, our relationship with Christ is the only thing that matters when we die.
Copyright © 2023 by Frank King. All rights reserved.