What if You Knew 2016 Would Be Your Last Year on Earth?

Death happens. Many times it’s a mystery, but death happens. I know this because one of my functions as a pastor is to conduct funerals. Very rarely is death expected. The vast majority of the time it comes like a thief in the night. A common phrase I hear is “he/she was taken too soon.” So no one expects to die in 2016, but millions of people will. Death happens.

So let’s just say you knew for certain that 2016 would be your last year on earth. How would your priorities change? What would you do? Would it impact how much time you spent with your family? Would it impact the legacy to try to leave behind you? How would it affect your weekends, those wasted nights in front of the television? How much time would spend on Facebook or your cell phone versus with those you loved? How many broken relationships would you try to reconcile before you left this earth? How many things would you try and ‘make right’?

Here’s what the Bible says in the book of James, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4:13-14 

If you knew for certain that 2016 would be your last year on earth, your priorities would radically change. At the end we don’t know, no one does, but we can pretend like we do know. We can pretend like this is our last year on earth, make things right, leave a legacy, and waste not a single drop of this incredible year in front of us.

I don’t know the next funeral I’m going to conduct, but I guarantee you it will be a surprise to the family. If 2016 is your last year on earth, are you ready?