An appointment on everyone’s calendar

June 5, 2006

By Randy Mantik

In the personal information software that I have, there is an interesting feature in the calendar section. When you put an appointment on your own calendar, there is also an option that enables you to put the appointment on other people’s calendars. Wow, wouldn’t it be fun to schedule someone else’s day? I could really mess some people up!

All kidding aside, I find myself wondering how many of us really think about an appointment that is automatically and irrevocably scheduled on our life’s calendar — the date of our death. Unless we are one of those who are alive when Christ returns and we are caught up to meet Him in the air without having to go through a physical death, we are each appointed a day to die.

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, KJV). This appointment is unavoidable. How much time do we take to make sure we are ready for that appointment, which could come at any moment?

Several months ago, my wife and I were driving down a section of highway where a fatal car crash had taken place just the day before. As we neared the site, Debbie said to me, “Just think. The people who died in that crash the other day had no idea that when they got to this point on the highway, they had just one mile left to live.”

Wow. That is sobering. I wonder if they were ready for their appointment?

Preparation must be made not just for our appointment with death but, more importantly, for the appointment that comes after. Each of us will face God’s judgment.

“If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.” (1 Corinthians 3:12,13, NIV)

What will count in that day? What will remain? What choices that we made in life will prove to have eternal worth, or not? Will our priorities reflect a God-centered life or a self-centered one?

At that appointment we won’t be able to hide anything, put up a façade, or disguise who we were or what we did on this Earth. On that day, everything will be laid bare for all to see and for God to judge. In all things we plan or do today, we must also look to that day when an accounting will be required of us.

As we decide how to live our lives every day, we would do well to remember these words from the prophet Jeremiah as he mourned Jerusalem, which had fallen because of her people’s blatant disregard for God’s ways and their lack of consideration of the end results of that choice: “Her filthiness clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding; there was none to comfort her” (Lamentations 1:9 NIV). Whether it be in Jerusalem or in your heart, the results of turning away from God are the same.

God may not give us step-by-step details on what to do on any specific day; He leaves a lot of those decisions up to us. However, He does not hide the end from us. He makes plain the kind of life we need to live in order to end well.

This appointment on everyone’s calendar is not one that we can control. But we can prepare for it by living in the Light of God’s love, righteousness and wisdom. So when that Day comes, we will be ready and unashamed to stand before our Righteous Judge. I plan to be ready for this appointment. I hope you do too!

Randy Mantik is senior pastor of Beecher Assembly of God in Pembine, Wis.