Suppose you knew you only had a month left to live. How would you spend your last days?

Lately I’ve been thinking more and more about just how short our lives really are, and how little time we have to live them deeply and meaningfully.

What if you had just one month to live? Let’s also suppose that you were healthy for that final month. What would you do? Would you focus on enjoying and seeing as much of the world as possible?

Would you spend it learning as much as you can, whether from books, or captivating intellectual conversations?

Would you try to create something to be remembered by — something to leave as your final stamp on the world?

Or maybe your final month would be about finishing off your “bucket list:” parachuting out of a plane, or taking that trip to India you’ve always wanted to take. I have to admit, both of those sound interesting and maybe even fun. (Well, not so much the part about hurling yourself hundreds of feet to the ground. I’ll pass on that.)

Any of those choices might seem like worthwhile ways to spend that month — but by whose standards?

For my own part, I hope I would have the courage to make a deeper choice — a choice that, in my estimation, is essential. I would hope that in my last days, I would choose to grow closer to God.

Grow closer to God? Alan, are you nuts? I would go skydiving!

Think about it, though. The moments in our lives are not just fleeting and precious; they are also very limited.

We were put on this Earth by God, to know and love God, so that we can be with Him forever.

And when God puts an inevitable storm in our path, a storm which ends up taking us from this earth, we have to know how to hold firm in the storm – not by holding on to whatever superficial things we can find for as long as we can, whether it be vacations, skydiving, or even by giving into our lower nature through indulging in vice — but instead by trusting that the one Person who matters most in this world will never let go of us.

And in return, we must never let go of Him.

That’s what perfect love is.

Perfect love casts out all fear, and replaces it with hope.

So I hope I would find the strength and courage to spend my final moments in deep prayer and reflection, growing closer and closer to God.

During this Holy Week we recall how Jesus gave his life for us. At the end of my life, I would choose to commend my spirit back to Him.

But hold on a moment. Whether we have that one last month or not, life is still short and fleeting. Why wait until our dying days to give ourselves over to drawing closer to God?

Instead, why not spend every day in that pursuit?

Life goes quickly. Knowing the day or month of your death is a gift most people don’t receive.

Don’t waste your opportunity to draw close to God today — so you can enjoy an eternity with Him forever.