FEW HOURS TO LIVE

What would you do if you are given with just few hours to live?

Most of us might have the same response or answer to this question which I believe can be summarized into 3 statements: 

1.        Spend the remaining time with love ones 

2.      Reconcile with our enemies 

3.      Give thanks to God for the life given to us and ask forgiveness to our sins

This answer I think is very common to everyone, but I have a different answer in my mind which I would like to share with you.

I haven’t realized how valuable time or my life is until I witnessed death itself with the last few days and hours I spent with my father, my Tatay as I called him.

I really don’t like the thought of death nor expect that I will see it with my own eyes and feel it directly from a love one.

I’m not so emotionally attached with my father. The truth is I fear him because of his very aura which is strict and disciplinarian. He has a very strong personality and he’s not expressive (I think those are the qualities I got from him). He is responsible but not showy in terms of his love to us.

With that, I just let time flies between us as I am busy with my own life thinking that it’s OK not to mind him so much.

Until that unforgettable week when he was given with just few hours to live, and somehow God had given me the chance to take care of him. That painful feeling when you see the person you love dies and wished that if you can just buy time to spend more with that person, you will definitely do it. Yes, I cried like a river when he held his last breath. The reason is regret. I regret when I let the time passed without showing him how much I appreciate his hard work in getting us to school and finished College. I regret the time when I did not express my gratitude to a responsible father who sacrificed much for the provision of his children. Still I thank God for giving me that last few hours to show him how much I care and ensuring that he will rest in the arms of Jesus.

Then something in the way I see my life changed at that moment. I realized that life indeed was short. Time is valuable. You will never know how or when your life will end. There’s really a time for everything, but each day might be your last so you must learn how to value it.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

New International Version (NIV)

A Time for Everything

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.

Live our life to the fullest as they say. But for me it’s better to say that let us live our life as if it’s our last. Treat each day as our last day to live, every hour as our last chance to breathe without compromise.

Our existence in this world is just temporary and just a short time for us to fulfil our purpose. Did you know that? That each of us has our own purpose to fulfil? If you are not aware of that, then you will never know how to give importance to life and even to your time.

The most significant thing that we should know first is the source of our life, the giver of our life. Where did we get the air that we breathe, the soul that resides in our bodies and the spirit that gives us the highest way of thinking and feeling? Where? Everything comes from our creator. Who? Who else but the maker of heaven and earth, who has a name high above all names, the Alpha and Omega, the Lord God Almighty.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

New International Version (NIV)

12 Remember your Creator
    in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
    and the years approach when you will say,
    “I find no pleasure in them”—
2 before the sun and the light
    and the moon and the stars grow dark,
    and the clouds return after the rain;
3 when the keepers of the house tremble,
    and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
    and those looking through the windows grow dim;
4 when the doors to the street are closed
    and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
    but all their songs grow faint;
5 when people are afraid of heights
    and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
    and the grasshopper drags itself along
    and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home
    and mourners go about the streets.

6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,
    and the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
    and the wheel broken at the well,
7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
    and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

As young as you are right now, you must learn to discover ways on how to make your life meaningful and fruitful. Of course God wants us to enjoy our life but he wants to be part of everything in it. An inventor wants to make sure that his invention functions properly, and if he found any defect on it, he fixes it. The same thing with God, as He is our Creator, he wants to make sure that we are living a good life. If he found something that works far from His will, he fixes it. But he penetrates through our willingness and acceptance of His control over our life. He can never fix a life that doesn’t want to be fixed. In other words, surrendering our life to our God makes it living our life to the fullest and obedience to Him is like living our lives as if it’s our last. Does this make sense to you? 

Since life on earth is temporary, we ought to prepare for what is eternal. The life we gained when Jesus died on the cross is a gift that we must treasure and not allowing anyone to take it away from us.

John 10:10

New International Version (NIV)

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Death is inevitable, but we have a promise of eternal life from God. We might die in this world, but we can live forever in heaven. The question is: are we living in accordance to the will of God? Or are we wasting our time fulfilling our own selfish desires that takes us away from our purpose?

Because life is short and time is fleeting, we must gain wisdom now. . .

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

New International Version (NIV)

13 Now all has been heard;
    here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
    for this is the duty of all mankind.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
    including every hidden thing,
    whether it is good or evil.