THREE SCARY SECONDS! WHAT IF IT WAS THE LAST?

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EvangelistBee

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It was a turbulent night. I was restless throughout. A lot of things had been going through my mind. I had flashbacks. All in three seconds, I thought it was over. It could have been. It was close. It was like a dream. May be more like a movie? I had talked about it. I had preached about such scenarios. I had heard other people’s experience and testimonies. Now I had to face it. It was this picture that I struggle to go to bed with. What if? I did not even know how to thank God. Just kept on saying," I am grateful" intermittently.

What if.........?

Finally, when the day broke, I dragged myself out of bed and found my way to the wedding I was travelling to before the incidence. It was a nice hall with a wonderful, great and calm ambience. Men and women were happy.  You could see that the couples were literally floating on top of the world. Who cares what I was going through? It was not that I was sad. However, I was in deep thought. Who really cares if someone has some issues going through his mind? There were a lot of green and blue colored schemed dresses – they bred peace. My mind keeps drifting in and out. I saw the old who had seen it all. I saw young people who are aspiring to the future. I understood what Jesus said when He said that when Rapture happens, people would be doing the typical things as they will be caught unawares. 

Mat 24:38-39 - In the days before the flood people ate and drank, men and women married, up to the very day Noah went into the boat; yet they did not realize what was happening until the flood came and swept them all away. That is how it will be when the Son of Man comes. (GNB)

How I wish the reality of the vanities of life will dawn on us more? In seating down there, I drifted in and out of the powerful sermon. He preached about sensitivity in marriage. I wonder if what they really need to be more sensitive about is eternity and if this was to be their last day on earth – will they be ready? I was now calm and reassured.

I was now stronger and bolder about life. There is a reason why I am here. I am not just a statistic. There is a reason why we were not miscarried in our mother’s womb. A lot were aborted. They never had a name. The fact that we are here has an implication. We are condemned to do something positive and godly with our lives. The earlier we set at it - the better. No one knows. No one is sure when it will be. The play will end sometimes, someway, somehow. Why do we make so much noise about how it ends? The fact that it will end is more critical than the way it ends.  I saw that option closely again yesterday evening.

The rich but foolish man mentioned in the scriptures boasted about his business plans, committee meetings and parties. That night his life was requested of him. 

Luk 12:19-20 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

I was trying to make some sense of my experience when I remembered a story some years back on same road where I got this wake up call.There was a wealthy Nigerian man who traveled to his hometown from Lagos. When he was about thirty minutes drive home, he called his wife to request for a special meal. It seems he was planning to meet friends after dinner.  The meeting never happened. He never ate another food again! He never got home - alive or dead. He had an accident, his car somersaulted and he died. He was moved from there to the morgue and from the morgue to the grave. We plan! Big plans! Beyond our plans- there is an end. Plans will end sometimes. That reality dawned on me again yesterday.

Don’t worry, I will tell you in few words what my experience was. However, let me tell you another one that flashed through my mind now. A wonderful business woman who also happens to be a pastor recently died in a helicopter crash. She was avoiding the challenges of Nigerian roads and stuck to the ease of going by air. She was the only passenger on the 250km journey. She could afford it and it will help save time as she is a busy person. The chopper crashed. How I wish there is was software that we could use to know if and when it would be – may be it will make the world more sane and people will take life and afterlife serious. May be mundane things like fighting on women, men and titles will be less on our priority? However such software does not exist. May be some people would have made money from it? The holy dies. The sinner dies. The difference is and always will be about what happens after!

Heb 9:27-And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

My own story that you have been waiting for is simple but intensely quickening! I decided to travel a day early for a wedding and was scheduled to travel alone. Lots of weekend traffic caused ample delay and it was getting late. I called my host that I will see him at the wedding next day as I was running late. I told him I will go straight to the hotel to sleep. I was planning what to do, what to eat and where to sleep. Man? Always planning! Less than 5 minutes after, I decided to pass a slow bus. For some reasons, I guess because of an unexpected pothole, the big 18 wheeler in front of me slowed down suddenly that the only option I had to dodge the truck and the pothole was to “voluntarily” leave the road to the side – which turned out not to be a really better option. After some “three seconds” of noise and loud bangs in and out numerous deep holes and a blown tire, Heaven helped to control the car. I wondered – is this how it happens - two to three seconds and it’s all over. The major issue is that till now, 16 hours after this “ last night“ experience, I had been kept thinking. Where would I have been if it had been worse? What would it have been like after my exit? Strangely I had peace. 

Mar 4:39 - And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

I don't know when last you had your own last night wake up call. I don't know what it was. May be it was the death of a friend. Was it a surgery to an acquaintance gone awry?  May be it is a bad annual physicals results? A tumor discovered somewhere and unexpected? A cancer came back? May be it was the avoidance of shame due to not been caught with a misdemeanor? Whatever! What are you going to do about the wakeup call? If you have not had any recently, I am giving you one now.

In my own case, I will give you what I decided to do. Have some options. Yes, I have options since I have life, heaven gave me hope. May be its time to slow down from the furry of life (a friend calls it rat race) and enjoy God, life, enjoy beauty of nature and just take it in. I will work harder for heaven and the kingdom while keeping an eye for things that matters. I need to stop taking major things lightly- take them more seriously. I need to raise the level of important things even though they seemingly do not look urgent. This might be a good time to restitute and make peace where necessary. 

One of my ex-staffs who left our employment over 4 years ago sent me a text just before I took on the trip yesterday night. When she left us, she left with acrimony. She left on “top of the world” - so it seems and so she said. She left with a lot of money albeit ill gotten.

Pro 9:17 - Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. 

She used to be rated as the richest "ex staff" in our zone. Sometimes I fight back when things like this happen and sometimes I get peace by letting go. Why? It’s not because am a fool but I know there is a day called tomorrow. The prodigal son forgot there is a tomorrow. My experience yesterday reminds me that truly there is an end and the expectation of the righteous will not be cut off. After a while, she pleaded for forgiveness and I did. I moved on and believed she had moved on too.  Even at that, she still sent a text yesterday listing all the wrongs she did and that she would want to restitute. I don’t know what she saw or heard but I replied that heaven has forgiven her and I have also forgiven her and encouraged her to move on. I understood her plight  on what she want going  through like the tax collector who promised Jesus that he will restitute any wrong he might have done  voluntarily.

Luk 19:8 - And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

I had moved on but you can never underestimate the power of conviction - if we allow the Holy Spirit to work on our hearts.

Do you think you stumbled on reading this by accident? No! Respect your "yester-night" experience. Do it now. What have you been leaving undone - the call, the trip, the repentance, the restitution. I have more check list for you - the will to write, the apology to make, the separation from unnecessary relationship, the pledge to make, the resignation to follow through. Ten proposed years might end up being ten days only. Fifteen months might be fifteen years. Whatever it is - the time to do it right is Now!

"Jas 4:17 - Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

DO WHAT IS RIGHT AND DO IT NOW.

If this helped you – take a moment to take the necessary decisions and write them out. Follow up and implement them before you join life’s rat race again. After this, you can go ahead and send this wake-up  call to someone you care for – someone who needs it. Send it to someone who feel and believes life is forever on earth and death is inconsequential to apply his heart to wisdom. 

Remember,

2Co 13:5 - Put yourselves to the test and judge yourselves, to find out whether you are living in faith. Surely you know that Christ Jesus is in you? unless you have completely failed. (GNB)

You will not fail in Jesus Name. Amen

God bless you.

EVANGELIST BEE.

No. 126 – 17th September 2011

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