Recently a physician told me of his visit to his lawyer to make his will. At some point in their conversation, the doctor said the words "in case I die." The lawyer's reply to his doctor client was, "What do you mean, in case you die?"

There inevitably comes the time when we must give over to others the work we have done and the position we have held and it is truly pathetic when we cannot do this but clutch what we cannot hold. We must learn that we are pilgrims and that our inner security comes from being able to step out into the unknown with God as our great companion.

The peculiar pathos of retirement is that we are, so to speak, stripped of the titles, positions and associations that gave us at least some of our identity. Naked of titles, needed no more, we become "has beens." Naked, we step into a new life that must be created. Then we discover where our inner security lies. If we are strong only because of title or position, then retirement is a profound crisis. If, on the other hand, we are inwardly strong in the Lord, then retirement is simply another of his great marching orders.

Dying right is not morbid. Dying right presupposes living right, each day, indeed each moment, as it comes to us from the hand of God. It means paying attention to the precious time we have. It means the awareness that eternity is not somewhere out there, but rather here and now. It is our choice to experience it and live or to miss out on it and never to get around to living. Wake up and live!

I think we can help ourselves by thinking of our Savior being in the here and now as much as out there, and to think of our going to him just as much as his coming to us.

Eternity is our singular, personal future, and it is a glory to be apprehended, tasted and seen even now. We are, each one of us, very rapidly going to God, and we do well to be aware, to watch, and to attend.

Poet Robert Browning said: "Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be, the last for which the first was made." The advice to seek happiness directly always has been a fraud; happiness is a mysterious by-product of good battles, of getting out of bed because there is something God wants us to do. If we have talents, we ought to use them to God's glory until we draw our last breath.

Let us wake up, live right, die right, and know that Jesus Christ, who is here now; Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. His kingdom is among us and even within us.

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