In December, 2020, my husband and I were diagnosed with Covid. We had minor symptoms for about three days, and then we became very ill. My husband had breathing problems and eventually developed pneumonia. Both of us had severe weakness and suffered a variety of symptoms over several weeks. I remember lying in bed alone at home while my husband lay in a Covid unit at the hospital and prayed that God would preserve our lives. My greatest fear was that I would die at home, alone.

I heard a preacher recently state. “You will never live like you should live until you get comfortable with the fact you are dying.” He offered the following passages about death in general:

“…For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14 ESV).

 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and come to their end without hope” (Job 7:6).

 “My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good. They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey” (Job 9:25-26).

 “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10).

Lying alone in my house, I thought about what it would be like to come to the end of my life. I thought about all the mistakes I have made, the things I wish I had done, the people I wish I had talked to about my faith, the opportunities I had missed, and ways I might have better served the Lord. When I heard these passages, I was once again reminded of the shortness of our time on earth.

This past week, my son-in-law lay in intensive care with a blood clot in his heart. His illness once again reminded me of these passages. Though a young man, his time on this earth is no more guaranteed than mine. I prayed for healing for him, and he is now home; but his fate, like ours, is in God’s hands.

So how can we get comfortable with the fact we are dying?  I don’t know how the preacher addressed the “getting comfortable with the fact that we are dying,” but I believe the answer can be found in Psalm 90:12. “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

This psalm is attributed to Moses, and he would most certainly know about the challenges of life and the quickness of death. David would also have appreciated the wisdom in Moses’ words. Maybe that is why Solomon, David’s son, prayed for wisdom and an understanding heart to rule God’s people. It is too bad that Solomon did not use the wisdom God gave him to manage his life.

When David was about to die, he gave some advice to the future king, his son. He said, “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn” (First Kings 2:2-3). That same advice is the explanation to “number our days and get a heart of wisdom.” If we realize that our days are numbered, and we walk in God’s ways and keep His commandments, we will be comfortable with dying.

John, the apostle, writes, “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” (First John 3:21-24).

To be comfortable with dying is to be comfortable living a life pleasing to God, obeying His commandments and loving one another. Are you comfortable with dying?

Sandra Oliver