Cancer Blog #55
By Brian Zimmerman
Begun on July 31, 2021
Email: dyingman1@yahoo.com
My Dying Words
Entry #55 – Our Lives Are Written
September 15, 2022
[Psalm 139:16 NASB95] 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained [for me,] When as yet there was not one of them.
The psalmist emphasizes a message that we have seen a number of times, that before we were born the literal number of our days was ordained. There is a fixed day and time when death will come for you. That can cause you consternation or comfort. Consternation because you see that you do not have the control you thought. Your life is not an open-ended arrangement of days that you use until you finally just wear out and are ready to pass away. There is no guarantee for that. Just ask me – working full time as a physical therapist, planning on working one more year till I was 70 years old and then retiring with lots of ideas as to what I was going to do at that point. Instead, 2 months after my 69th birthday, I was forced to go on short term disability because of severe shortness of breath, and at the end of the disability, in August 2021, I was again forced to retire. None of that was in my plan for my future; I could no longer work and most plans for my retirement went out the window. Don’t permit yourself to believe that tomorrow is a certainty, that your life then will be just like today. That is a very foolish mindset.
The thought of a fixed day and time for death may not cause you consternation. It may instead be a comfort. How can that be, you wonder? Because if you are a true child of God, it assures you that the covenant Lord whom you serve is in control. Nothing happens by accident. My terminal diagnosis was under God’s direction and was intended for my good. I firmly believe that. It was an act of discipline as discussed in Hebrews 12 for my correction, to increase my obedience and lessen my sin. There was no need for me to be frightened or worried. And even now, with my life extended beyond what I or the medical community expected (I guess I must need extra correction or am a slow learner!), I am still comforted by the psalmist’s words: “…in Your book were all written the days You ordained, when as yet there was not one of them.”
Next: Why Hope in Mortal Man?