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Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The Next One

I am told that in a monastery in New Mexico, my home state, is a small cemetery primarily used for the Benedictine monks who die there.  But, unlike most cemeteries, graves here are not dug after death but before.  It’s not uncommon for pilgrims and strangers to walk through this cemetery and upon seeing an open freshly dug grave ask, “did one of the monks just die?”  The answer they receive undoubtedly shocks most as it also awakens others.....”No, it is for the next one.”

So, three times a day, on their way to breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all normal activities of living, these men pass by an open grave reminding them of two things. Death is lurking and will not be denied and one of them will be the “next one”.

I wonder if this wouldn’t be a good picture for us as professing believers in Jesus Christ to cement into our consciousness—an open grave not hidden from the reality of living but as part of it.  An open grave ready and prepared for the “next one”, reminding us that one of us could be the “next one”.  

It makes me wonder how I might think and do differently if my daily routine included a continual reminder that I’m not promised tomorrow and that today could possibly be my last day.  Realizing I might be the “next one” might not be a bad thing.  In fact, it might very well be a good thing because living with death in sight tends to make one live better.  I think that’s why Solomon made the point, toward the end of his life, in Ecclesiastes 7:2, that, “It is better to go to a house of mourning (funeral parlor) than to a house of feasting because that is the end of every man—and the living takes it to heart.”

The thought that any day I might be the “next one” tends to motivate me to run the last lap of my life with a renewed vigor because quite frankly, at 60, the finish line is in sight and I want to finish my race well.  I don’t want to play it safe all the way to the grave with the intention of leaving behind a hefty bank account, lots of toys, and no broken bones.  No, that’s not for me.  I want to make it home safe by skidding in sideways, an empty wallet in one hand and God’s Word in the other with my body thoroughly used up and totally worn out making much of Jesus and screaming—“Wow what an adventure!”

It motivates me to run my race with endurance compelling me to lay aside my besetting excuses (encumbrances) and sins which have entangled me so as to run with my eyes fixed only on Jesus, Who, in running and defeating death before and for us, has already marked out the path we are to follow (Hebrews 12:1-2).  In this way and only in this way will we run the race that is before us and cross the finish line of death well so as to obtain a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35).

So, might you be the next one?  Are you running?  Are you running well?






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Pursuing the Glory of Christ as though He were the most important pursuit in all the world--Because He Is!

" Looking for the Blessed Hope and the appearing of The Glory of our Great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." Titus 2:13