If You Knew You Only Had One Day to Live, What Would You Do?

Let’s talk about your life. If you knew you only had one day to live, what would you do? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever written out a to do list? “I have to do this before I die…I have to go skydiving, travel to Australia and lie on the beach, sitting on the top of the highest mountain in the world and pray for a while”… Maybe that last one’s just me. How do you feel about your to do list—is it good? Would you be confident comparing yours to the person next to you? How about this: Would you feel confident showing it to God?

It’s true—God has something to say about your to do list. So if you already have one, I want you to add at least one item today. And if you don’t have one, well, today you’ll get off to a good start. By looking at Elijah and Jesus, we’ll see the one, most important thing we can do before leaving earth.

At the start of our account about the great prophet Elijah we read: the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Somehow, God had revealed to him and to others that this was Elijah’s last day. So in the next few verses we’d expect Elijah to live it up—to hurry through his to do list. We’d expect him to quick party with his friends, singing, dancing together —well, maybe he didn’t do that last one because he knew God was just going to bring him back up there anyways. He doesn’t do any of those things. At first glance, Elijah’s last day looks…boring. He’s just walking around and talking to some people.

2 Kings 2:1~10

”Hello, Elijah you’re wasting your last hours here.” What is he doing? He told his understudy Elisha, “The Lord has sent me to Bethel (v. 2).” And he visited a group of prophets there (v. 3). Then he said, “The Lord has sent me to Jericho (v. 4).” And he visited a group of prophets there (v. 5). Calmly, with his eyes on heaven so rapidly approaching, Elijah is carrying out the Lord’s will by visiting people in different places. It seems boring, but when we look closer at what he’s doing I think you’ll actually admire it.

Our culture teaches us that we have to squeeze every drop of pleasure and excitement out of this life, especially in our last days. And we do admire people who finally quit the job they hate and retire in a tropical paradise. “Good for you.” But when it comes down to it, I think we admire a different way people can spend their last days even more.

In the movie P.S. I Love You, Gerry, played by Gerard Butler suddenly finds out he has days to live because of a brain tumor. So what does he do? He spends the short time he has left writing out letters to be given to his wife after he dies. These letters lead his wife, Holly, on a journey of recovery, help her grieve and move on. And that’s what makes that movie a powerfully emotional chick-flick (during which I did not cry). Gerry didn’t spend his last days trying to squeeze every last drop out of his own life. He spent it thinking of Holly, and trying to make sure she’d be ok after he was gone.

We admire when people use their last days to show love to others. That’s what Elijah was doing—he wasn’t just visiting random people; he was visiting the different pastor schools in his day. He was visiting Christians like you and me, who were about to lose their friend, their professor, their spiritual leader, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament next to Moses. This was unsettling.

So Elijah spent his last day on earth taking care of what they needed, and at the same time crossing off the biggest and most important item on his to do list. Are you ready for it? It’s the same command Jesus gave in the Gospel today: Love one another. Elijah was doing the most loving thing possible: reminding his friends and followers of God’s love. “Don’t worry—God will still be guiding you when I’m gone and we will be reunited in heaven with our Savior someday.”

So…how does your to do list compare? Have you at least added Love others to the bottom by now? If you haven’t, I’ll give you time right now to mentally add it. Love others. Ok, now that you’ve done that I’ve got bad news. You have to do this one first, before anything else. And it takes a lot of time. You have to start today and work on it every single day and it’s probably going to prevent some or all of the other items on the list from getting checked off. Are you ok with that?

I think parents here probably understand that more than some. How many dreams have you had to put on the shelf for your children? Not just the dream vacation you changed to go to a place more family friendly, but also the little things every day. You have to cancel your date night because your daughter came down with the fever, or you lose your chance to sleep in on Saturday because your son need to you help him to go to see a doctor early in the morning.

When Jesus command to love others becomes priority number one, the rest of your to do list, all the stuff that you wanted to accomplish, often gets pushed down further and further and soon approaches the scary territory of probably-not-going-to-happen. It’s hard to be ok with that. And not just be ok with it, but to actually love others all the time without complain. It’s hard—impossible—for us to love our coworker, neighbor, spouse, kids, friends, without ever getting frustrated that they are getting in the way of our fulfillment and hopes and dreams. How can Jesus ask that of us?

This is where the big picture comes into play. Elijah didn’t have a very fulfilling life. He worked super hard for God and in exchange he was chased and threatened and saw people ignore his miracles and ignore his God. And he grumbled about it. But as he saw the small picture of his hopes and dreams for this life fade into the distance, God replaced them with the big picture of eternal life through his Savior. God replaced his dream of heaven on earth with the hope of, well, heaven in heaven.

That hope of heaven changes everything. Do you think Jesus didn’t notice his friends growing up, getting married, raising the picture perfect families? He had to see his brothers and neighbors get into successful careers, move up in the world, being admired by people around him. But his heart wasn’t set on those things. His heart was set on heaven, not for himself, but for you. Jesus set fulfillment in this world aside, so he, perfectly and in your place, could love others—and love you. And to do that he didn’t just deprive himself of hopes and dreams in this world, he embraced suffering. He suffered on the cross to forgive our lack of love, our frustration with others, our sins on the cross. And he did it without complain even a little; no, he did it with a heart bursting with love for you.

Hebrews 12:2 says, “For the joy set before him [Jesus] endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Because of the joy set before him, Jesus was happy to spend every last minute of his life loving you. And that joy? Bringing you to heaven; Knowing just how much you’re going to love being with him forever; knowing how much fun he’s going to have showing you around your new perfectly heavenly home that he’s prepared just for you. And his death and resurrection guarantee that he will take you there soon, whether through death or a fiery chariot or by calling you personally on the last day—it doesn’t matter. What matters is, heaven is yours, and you’ll be there soon.

That’s how Elijah could approach his last day so calmly. That’s why you don’t have to be afraid of death cutting off your hopes and dreams. When you have the hope of heaven, you know that your to do list doesn’t end when you die—it only gets better. In heaven Jesus will fill up your to do list with more exciting and more fulfilling things than anything we could ever have done in this life

When you know you have that waiting for you in heaven because of Jesus, you don’t feel the need to squeeze every drop of out of this short life. That’s why in our Gospel for today, Jesus could tell us that one command: to love one another. Because of the hope of heaven, the people around you aren’t burdens or frustrations holding you back from achieving your dreams. No—the only dream you need in this short life is a dream of loving those around you, showing them what a difference the hope of heaven through Jesus makes in your life and showing them what a difference it will make in their lives. Amen.

If You Knew You Only Had One Day to Live, What Would You Do?