Ghandi's Advice

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." --Mahatma Ghandi

What great advice!  Actually two bits of advice there.  The first, live as if you were to die tomorrow, is reminiscent of John's recollection of Jesus telling us about living life to the full (Jn 10:10).  But what does that REALLY mean?  Party hearty and let the chips fall where they may?  Enjoy everything you can because your mist of a life is over before you know it?  Lie, cheat and steal because you are going to die tomorrow anyway?   No, we know that is NOT what it means.  But, conversely, what DOES it mean?  Before we tackle this question, I have some questions for you:

What have you done to plan for your death?  Do you have a will?  Does the executor of that will know where it is located?  Can he/she get to it?  What are your burial plans?  Going to be cremated?  If so, what do you want done with the ashes?  Do you have life insurance?  Do the folks who will receive the money from that insurance know about it?  Do they know where the insurance policy is kept?  Can they get to it?  Do you have a living will, in case of severe injuries?  Do you have saving and checking accounts?  If so, can your survivors easily get to those funds?  Do you have passwords for money accounts which your survivors need to know?  Do have 401K and other savings plan funds tied up somewhere?  Can your survivors access those funds directly, or does it have to go through probate court systems?  Do you have unpaid bills?  (dumb question).  If so, do your survivors know where those accounts are and know how to make payments?  Are your important documents safeguarded and accessible by folks will may survive you?

This list is very small when it comes to the number of questions that will go through your survivor(s) head(s) upon your death.  Some of us have experienced being a survivor, and know that it is difficult enough losing a loved one without having to go through the myriad of tasks to track down account numbers, guess at what the deceased wanted done with the body, etc etc etc etc etc.

MY advice about living as if you were to die tomorrow, would be to first get everything in order.  This may sound morbid, but not only OLD people die.  We need to prepare for our own death, for others.  We prepare OURSELVES for our own death by remaining close to God, ensuring a place in eternity with Him.  But we also need to prepare OTHERS as if we were to die tomorrow.  If you can satisfactorily answer those questions with folks who will be responsible for your body and affairs after you die, then you don't need to worry about it.  However, if you can't, I would suggest you live today to do just that. 

Secondly, notice that Mr. Ghandi advises to learn as if you were to live forever.  Perhaps you may NOT die tomorrow (but unlike the movie indicates, tomorrow DOES come eventually).  So, if you don't die tomorrow, what are you going to do tomorrow?  Ghandi suggests learning.  Learning can be so much fun.  You can learn languages; learn how to fly; learn to cook; learn just about anything you want to.  And I suggest you learn all you can.  ONE thing I advise to continue to learn more of, is God's word.  And on that subject, what have you learned today from your Bible study?  Did you have one?  Can you find your Bible? Are you going to have a study today later?  If you have studied already, what are you going to do with the knowledge you learned?  Proverbs 2:1-5 advises us to store up His COMMANDS after gaining knowledge from His word. He wants us to DO SOMETHING with this new knowledge.   Now, we know we are not going to live forever, but many of us COULD live for quite few more years.  We need to learn every day from our Bible.  If we aren't, we are not only ignoring Mahatma's advice, we are spurning Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit as well. 

Mahatma Ghandi also stated that "If all Christians acted like Christ, the whole world would be Christian."  I believe that while we are living today in fear of dying tomorrow, and learning from God each day in case we live forever, we may just be acting more like Christians, and the whole world is our goal.

Mac