I used to help people write applications for academic positions. One of the requirements was for the applicants to explain their future research and career plans. The request was usually broken down into 5- and 10-year plans, with 10 years being considered “long term”.

As born-agains, our long term is forever, and the position we’re applying for is to be “like angels”, as Jesus described.

When you make plans and decisions based on a term that lasts forever, those plans and decisions are completely different than when you make them based on 5 or 10 years, or even a lifetime.

Let’s have an example. You’ve had some business and personal dealings with someone who is less than honest and who has maligned you to others to cover the dishonesty. You’ve considered outing this person as a warning to others, but you know that Jesus’ directive is to love your enemies and to pray for those who treat you badly. Giving bad press to someone isn’t loving them or praying for them.

From a short-term perspective, you might consider confronting this person about what he’s done and try to extract an apology or some kind of promise that it won’t be done again.

From a longer-term perspective, you might consider warning your colleagues about this person so that they don’t end up with the same issues as you.

But from an infinite perspective (that is, from God’s perspective), your job isn’t to correct this person or to warn others about him; Jesus said that you’re simply to love him, bless him, and pray for him.

I can tell you from personal experience that it takes some habit-building to get to the point where you no longer try to correct, extract an apology from, or trash-talk someone who’s done you wrong. But as you’re forming the habit, you can see and feel the difference it makes in your life. When you choose confrontation, there is no peace or rest. There is just an unease that doesn’t go away. When you choose to trash-talk, there is an even greater sense of unease that also doesn’t go away. There is no resolution to conflict by trying to correct or malign someone. You have to love that person through prayer and blessings and let God take it from there.

I just went through a scenario where I had solid grounds (in the eyes of the world) for complaining and demanding restitution. But after I’d cooled my heels a bit, I decided instead to go with Jesus’ way, and I bought a gift for the person and gave him good reviews for his business. The unease that had plagued me for a few days when I was contemplating how I should deal with the problem immediately fell away, and I also stopped thinking about him. What he did was done and could not be undone, but it could be forgotten and no longer spoken of. He certainly knew what he had done to me, so my gift and praises must have been a head-scratcher for him, to say the least.

I am not his judge. Those who do wrong purposely do it because they’re in some kind of emotional pain and are lashing out. Christians are typical targets. My gift and gesture of good will was either a balm to his soul or was heaping coals on him, but either outcome is no concern to me. He’s in God’s hands. When I think of him now, I wish him well in my heart. There is no longer a sense of unease or outrage.

When you love and bless rather than curse and avenge, you are making decisions and plans based on the longest of long terms, which is forever. You can live your life thinking short term, long term, or lifetime, but the decisions you’ll make based on those relatively short perspectives might not be the same as those you’ll make when you’re thinking in terms of forever.

I don’t want anything to get in my way of making it to Heaven. I don’t want to appear before God and Jesus on Judgement Day with them pointing out to me that I should have forgiven when I had the chance. I don’t want them to shake their heads at me sadly and tell me I knew better, but it’s too late now.

So I put my pride aside and I bless.

I put my pride aside and I pray.

I put my pride aside, even as people are calling me a sucker – I put my pride aside and buy a gift and give a good review. I can feel God’s Spirit working through me powerfully when I do that, and for me, that is a far greater rush and reward than “getting even” could ever be.

I’m not making decisions based on short term or long term. I’m not even making them based on a lifetime. I’m making them based on what’s right for all eternity, rather than what’s expedient or what appears to benefit me right now.

I hope that you’ll also make decisions and plans based on forever.

You have one year left to live – what would you do with it?

Would you continue your life as it is, or would you make radical changes? Would you continue working at your job, or would you find some other way to get money? Would you contact people you haven’t spoken to for a while to clear the air with them or maybe thank them for something they did long ago? Would you read the Bible more? Would you throw yourself at God’s mercy and beg him for forgiveness? Would you forgive?

You have one month left to live – what would you do with it?

Would you continue working, or would you walk away from the daily grind? Would you stay where you are or go to your favourite place with your favorite people? Would you be honest with friends and family about the one month you have left to live, or would you hide it from them? Would you grow closer to God and Jesus or push them away in anger?

You have one day left to live – what would you do with it?

Watch a movie? Read a blog?

Unless we take matters into our own hands (which I do not recommend), we don’t know how much time we have left on Earth. Even Jesus didn’t know until his time drew near. God keeps this information from us so that will make choices of our own free will. We are judged on those choices. Jesus says that our every idle thought and word will be judged.

The choices we make when we think we have many years left to live are quite different from those we make when we know we have only a few months or days or hours. It’s like the difference between moving house, when you can take all of your belongings – furniture, clothing, food and knick-knacks – and bugging out, when you can take only the bare essentials in one bag.

During his ministry years, Jesus lived in bug-out mode. He was constantly on the move and only took with him those things that he needed for the short-term. This is what he modeled for his followers, who likewise were constantly on the move and only took with them those things they needed for the short-term.

We have no guaranteed time on Earth. We get what God gives us, so we need to do our best every day, not just sometimes when we feel like it. Scripture tells us about the person who thought he had a long time yet to live and so backslid into a depraved life, only to be caught unawares and to end up dying in his sins. This is a frightening cautionary tale. If it’s not frightening to you, you need to read it and reread it until it is.

Jesus tells us to live with our loins girded and oil in our lamps, ever-ready to leave at a moment’s notice. This state of readiness should be our permanent state of being on Earth. Think of firemen at a fire station in between calls. They clean and maintain their truck so that it’s optimally functional; they work out to build their physical strength; they rest and eat nutritious meals to maintain their health… so when the alarm goes off without notice, they’re 100% prepared to leave the station within seconds.

How many Christians live up to this ideal? How many live their day-to-day lives with loins girded and oil in their lamps, ready and willing to leave at a moment’s notice and with no regrets?  I think very few do. I think most Christians put the thought of death far from them and never think about what they would do if they had only one year or one month or one day.

Or one hour.

Or a minute.

We need to think about our physical death even more than we need to think about our physical life; we need to prepare for death even more than we prepare for daily life. Death can come to us at any moment and in any number of ways. This thought shouldn’t frighten us but instead inspire us to look closer at how Jesus lived and taught us to live.

It’s a cliché to say that life on Earth is a journey, but it is a journey, and the destination is death. It can’t be any other way. You can’t avoid dying. Even Jesus died for a short time. But what you can do is prepare for death and what comes after death, and do so to the best of your ability. This should be your obsession. It was Jesus’ obsession.

Everything he did was with an eye to his final moments on Earth and the glory that would come afterwards. Every step he took he did so knowing his steps were numbered. This gave him the drive to work ceaselessly for the Kingdom with full understanding that only work for the Kingdom had any lasting value.

Before he launched his ministry, Jesus reviewed every aspect of his life and removed from it anything that did not in some way contribute to his work in the Kingdom or that outright interfered with it. He did this without a second thought and without looking back. To him, there was no other way forward to his destination than to clear the path of obstacles. Sometimes people are the main obstacles in the way; sometimes we’re our own worst obstacle.

So I ask you once again – if you had only one year, one month, or one day left to live, would your life change radically from what it is, or would you continue as you are? This is not something that you need to tell me, but something that you need to discuss with God. And you need to do so with the same urgency as a fireman springing to life when the alarm rings.

A few years ago, when I was still permitted to ride on public transit, I took a bus one afternoon to the grocery store. I’d gotten on at the beginning of the route, so I was able to nab a comfy seat near the front of the bus; the rest of the seats quickly filled up at each passing stop until it was standing room only.

Around half-way through my journey, an older lady got on. I was in a two-seater and my seatmate had just gotten off, so the lady sat down next to me. It was the only available place for her to sit.

We smiled and nodded at each other the way strangers do when they’re forced into publicly-sanctioned physical intimacy. I could feel her body’s warmth through our winter coats. We then chit-chatted a bit about the weather, and I looked at her and she looked at me. I could tell she wondered if she knew me from somewhere, just as I was wondering the same about her. She said she was on her way to pick up her grand-daughter from school, and did I know which stop was closest to the school’s front door. I gave her instructions to the best of my knowledge, and she thanked me. Again, we looked at each other quizzically, both clearly thinking the same thing (that we knew each other somehow), but neither of us said anything about it. I was enjoying her company, even though all we were sharing were mundane pleasantries. I felt as comfortable sitting next to her as if she were someone I’d known and loved all my life.

When it came time for her to get off, we said our good-byes like the dearest of old friends, waving to each other as the bus pulled away.

I thought about that lady again today, and about what made me feel so joyful and comfortable in her presence, even though she was a stranger. She’s born-again. She’s a believer. I know this because I know it. We didn’t say a word to each other about God or Jesus, but I know she’s a believer. I could tell by how the Spirit in me was responding to the Spirit in her. That’s what made us feel like we knew each other, like we were lifelong best friends.

Over the years when I was still allowed on public transit, I must have stood or sat next to thousands of people since I was born-again. We would chat about the weather or transit delays or the crowded bus or subway or train, but our interchange was only polite and friendly. There was nothing remarkable about it. Sitting next to the older lady on the bus was the only time that I’d felt such joy in a stranger’s presence.

Unlike mainstream Christians, I do not believe that spiritual rebirth is wide-spread and that everyone who identifies as Christian is born-again. I don’t even believe that everyone who identifies as born-again is actually born-again. What I do believe is that spiritual rebirth is incredibly rare, and that those who are reborn recognize each other the same way as John the Baptist recognized Jesus when they were both still in their mothers’ wombs – through a sudden surge in God’s Spirit. The Spirit in John the Baptist rejoiced at the presence of the Spirit in Jesus, just as the Spirit in Jesus rejoiced at the presence of the Spirit in John the Baptist. In the same way, the Spirit in me rejoiced at the presence of the Spirit in the older lady, just as the Spirit in the older lady rejoiced at the presence of the Spirit in me.

Even thinking about it two years later, I’m still smiling about the time I spent sitting next to her. I likely won’t be running into any born-agains on public transit any time soon (or ever again), seeing that I’m banned from it, but God will bring us into each other’s presence when there’s a need or when the time is right. I have no doubt about that.

As for the bus lady, I have a feeling I’ll be meeting up with her one day in Heaven, if and when we make it there. Maybe we’ll be seated next to each other at the wedding feast. I hope so. In the meantime, I’m praying for her as I know she’s praying for me as I know we’re all praying for each other in our cloud of born-again witnesses that is God’s Kingdom on Earth.