Expecting Death

By Chaplain (Col) Stephen W. Leonard, USA, Ret.

It is not very common for young people, even adults in the midst of their lives, apart from extraneous circumstances, to expect death. The extraneous circumstances predicating death are those afflicting folk who have a terminal illness, or elderly people who know their death is approaching, or a person sitting on death row., et cetera. These have an expectation of death. But most people do not, as a normal course of their day, expect to die before they put their head on a pillow that night, and they certainly expect to wake in the morning to face another day fully alive. 

People who do not expect death, but die suddenly in their sleep, or die from a drug overdose, or from a heart attack or aneurysm, a car accident, or natural disaster, and have no time to think about their death; it just happens in a split second, are completely surprised by death. 

No matter the nature of your death, it takes place for every person. All die once. And since after death, we do not transition into nothingness, as my neighbor told me years ago, but according to the Bible, we face judgement, shouldn’t we do some thinking about death before it happens to us? At every age, we should be thinking about it, since none of us really know the hour of our death. 

Before I got on a plane to fly to Vietnam as an Infantry Platoon leader in 1969, I had an expectation of death, since Infantry Platoon leaders had the lowest chance of survival in combat of any other combat position in the Army. So, I divested myself in advance of most of my possessions. Unfortunately, I sold my life’s favorite car; a Pontiac GTO convertible. Which I most regretted when I survived Vietnam and returned. 

Nevertheless, I spent time thinking about dying and preparing my heart for it. That certainly involved talking to the LORD, spending time with Him, throughout the last-minute training, saying goodbyes to family and friends I did not expect to see again, and final preparations to leave my home for a foreign war in a far-off place called Vietnam. 

God certainly had other plans for me, and at 79 years of age, I am still able to write this devotion on the beautiful grounds of the Paul Anderson Youth Home. As Proverbs tells us, “Man makes his plans, but every step of his path is in the hands of the LORD.” So I was enabled to come home and marry and have five children, four of whom lived to produce children of their own, including two great-grandsons. Samantha died at birth and is in heaven waiting for me. My wife, her mother, is already there with her. 

An expectation of death is something we all should have from an early age, so we will prepare our hearts to see the LORD when it comes. If it does not come till we are in old age, so much more blessedness to you in purposefully preparing your heart for heaven over and over, and then seeing the LORD face to face. To be “fit” for heaven, we need to be intentional about preparing our hearts to be in the LORD’s presence. This ought to be a lifetime preparation. 

Just such preparation involves time with the LORD in intimate conversation along with meditation in His Word. You want to grow “comfortable” in His presence because you know Him intimately as the LORD of your life and still yet be fearful of continuing sin in your life because He is holy. Both are the nature of increasing sanctification in the Holy Spirit. Being “comfortable” in His presence means you have become more experienced in being intimate with the LORD. 

May the intentional expectation of your death, though many years may transpire before it comes, make you “fit” for heaven, for judgement, and for seeing the LORD Jesus Christ face to face. If you die in a split second, you will still be prepared and ready to enter His presence. Do not let the Devil steal this precious preparedness away from you.

Encouragement