I was checking my profile on MySpace earlier (which is pretty damn cool, if I say so myself) and there was this ad banner at the top of the page that read "WHEN WILL YOU DIE? Click HERE to find out".So the question is, why would anyone want to know when they are going to die?
Now, don't anyone get to thinkin' that I'm stupid or gullible enough to entertain the notion that there's some contraption on the internet that can actually computate to the exact date when a person is going to die. That would be one mean machine with the power to predict something that noone has any control over...unless you count those troubled souls who are dedicated to committing suicide. Even then you have to wonder how the "Death Date Calculator" knows the date they have set.
I had a most frightening thought while contemplating the morbid ad banner. What if I were to accidentally click on that button? What if, by dumb bad luck, I happened to see that fateful date by mistake? January 31, 2021, maybe. No, I don't believe anyone or anything can tell me the day...but still, January 31, 2021. Ummm, that's still a long ways away...January 31, 2021...I'd be an old fart by then, anyway...January 31,2021...it's reasonable that I could die on January 31, 2021...at least I know I will have a good 24 years left, that's not too bad...January 31, 2021...24 years...January 31, 2021...maybe I WILL die on January 31, 2021, that leaves me a lot of time to do some things I always wanted to...January 31, 2021...I could jump off the Empire State Building next year, I wouldn't think twice about it, I'm okay until...January 31, 2021...maybe go sky-diving every day for the next 15 years, since I won't have to worry about my parachute malfunctioning, I ain't worried 'bout nothin' until...January 31, 2021...knowing the day I'm going to die gives me the opportunity to be prepared. I'll just make sure that on January 30, 2021, I bribe a registered nurse, with the accumulated fortune I've amassed, to shoot me up with enough morphine to stun a sperm whale. Then while I'm lost in the slumber of peaceful sleep, frolicking in the secure eternity of a deep dream, the Reaper can come reape his harvest without me knowing it. Because with that much morphine in my system there's not a chance in hell that I'll be awake on...January 31, 2021.
Are you crazy enough to click that button? Are you so sure that the answer you get will be hogwash? You'll dwell upon it, and contemplate it, you'll obsess over it and meditate on it...before you know it you've convinced yourself it's NOT hogwash at all. It COULD be true, and with that seed sown in your imagination, it will surely blossom into insanity.
The whole thing reminds me of Hezekiah. In the 20th chapter of 2 Kings in the Bible we read of how he became ill at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah fills him in on the details and lets him know he's about to kick the bucket (there was no need for an internet "death date calculator" in those days).
Understandably Hezekiah was not too happy to hear this news. Who would be? So he did what I imagine anyone would do in similar circumstances, even in this day and age...he started prayin'. And he started wailin'. Yep, that's what I'd do. and anyone who says they would do differently is a liar. I mean, come on...grasp the situation here.
So anyways Hezekiah's reelin' off this list of how faithful he's been, how devoted, all the good he's done...back in those Old Testament days all that stuff counted for something, maybe he had a chance.
As it turned out, he DID have a chance and all his bitter weeping paid off. He had a few years worth of good deeds beneath his belt. So the LORD sent Isaiah back to Hezekiah to tell him he'd just won an extra 15 to add to the rest.
Which, I'm sure, was some powerful great news at the time. Celebrations of thankfulness were certainly warranted. Fifteen years...a pretty good chunk of time.
Then 5 years pass. Still got 10 years! A man can get a lot done in 10 years. Could probably read "War and Peace" a few times. Travel, get to know the lay of the land. Have a few more kids, at least a couple of them will maybe get to know their daddy before he dies.
5 more years pass. The window of opportunity shrinks to 5 more years. On a day-to-day basis five years might not seem to pass too quickly. Hezekiah would be well advised to begin living day-by-day. Days probably seemed a lot longer then than they do now, anyway. No TV, no internet, none of the distractions of technology. That was a saving grace, at least. Fifteen years could have seemed like a lifetime. Even 10 years might have found the man so jaded and disillusioned with life that he begged the LORD to forget all the begging and just end it now. Likely not, though, because folks then appreciated living more than they do now. Five years may have been just fine.
But then it gets hard.
2 years.
1 year.
6 months.
Next month.
This week.
Tomorrow.
Fifteen years gone, deja vu: " Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 'Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.' And Hezekiah wept bitterly." (2 Kings 20: 2-3, NIV).
Naw...probably not. Hezekiah was a good man and wise. Probably ready to go, having had Yahweh's reality proven to him 15 years ago. Living that bonus time also bought another 15 years of peace and security for his people...a respite that would not last long after his departure.
I hope, when the time comes, that I'll be ready to go.
But for now, o omniscient death calculation device, keep it to yourself, cuz I don't want to know.
