Born to Die

by Gene Shelburne

We are born to die.

When we draw our first breath, most of us are surrounded by people whose most urgent concern is to keep that initial breath from being our last one.

But the last one will come. Inevitably. Part of living is dying, and most of us don’t get a choice about when.

I visited a longtime friend today. He’s been actively dying, inch by inch, for at least 35 years. Dread diseases have robbed him of sight, left him lame, ravaged his skin, riddled his heart, and now cost him a leg.

Who among us would not opt instead for an instant, painless end? Passengers in the fiery crash of that French Concorde didn’t have long to worry about dying. Nor did most of the sailors aboard Russia’s ill-fated submarine, Kursk. For them, death was violent, but quick.

All of us know we’re going to die, but most of us don’t know when.

Up in Gaston, Oregon, Brandon Tuning celebrated his birthday by going to eat ice cream with his buddies. Could anything have been farther from his thoughts than death? Suddenly a 1,500-pound elk, catapulted by a passing truck, crushed the roof of the car Brandon was riding in. Death came swiftly. As Paul Harvey says, he will be forever 16.

On the same day in August, 2000, 13-year-old Ivan Smith and three companions decided to dig a hole in the sand at Salisbury Beach Club in Massachusetts. Their excavation was about 5 feet deep when, without warning, the sand collapsed and their fun turned fatal. Dying was the last thing Ivan Smith planned to do that day, but death came anyway. As it will for all of us.

How ready will we be?

Having buried my own parents in recent times, I am trying harder these days to keep my own business affairs ledgered and documented clearly so my wife and kids won’t inherit a mess if I run out of days unexpectedly.

Having good health does not guarantee me that any breath might not be my last. So I try to make sure that the people I love know all the time that I love them.

Since death is unavoidable, I try to live every moment in harmony with God, secure in his grace because I trust in what he did for me on Calvary.

What about you? How ready are you to die?