When I was a kid I would watch “The Jack Lalanne Show” on TV. He was a fitness pioneer. A chiropractor by training, he opened his first health spa in California in 1936. Stressing diet and exercise he called himself the “Godfather of Fitness.” He would say, “I can’t die- it would ruin my image.” Consider his image ruined as he died in 2011 at the age of 96.
Our nation is consumed with living longer. We exercise, diet, pop pills, go into debt, plan our retirement, color our hair, have our doors bolted, our lives insured, ours stocks managed, our tummies tucked and our cholesterol tested. We put warning labels on everything from cigarettes to trash bags, all in an effort to prevent anything from ending our lives one moment too soon. But in the end our image is ruined, we die!
A young ruler came to Jesus with a question, and it was not “What must I do to live longer.” No, he ran to Jesus with the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life” (Mk. 10:17). Oh, that we would seek eternal life rather than long life! Are you trying to live longer to avoid the grave, or preparing for death to gain Heaven?
-Dennis Doughty