When you work for a hospice, death is mentioned on a daily basis. However, I’m only thirty years old, so the eminence of my death isn’t a huge reality. Of course, I could get in my car this afternoon, pull out of the parking lot, see a nice truck coming my direction and meet my Maker. And that is why death doesn’t bother me. I know where I will be when I die, and it’s a lot better than being here on this earth.

This week as I was entering paperwork into the computer, I had time to read the entries of the chaplain. He had called a woman whose husband died last month to see how she was doing and if there was anything she needed. In his report he stated that the wife was just glad her husband had “died happy”.

Now, as a disclaimer, I happen to know how this guy died. The nurse who pronounced told some of us in the office what she found at that apartment. And, for the sake of G-rating this blog, we’ll just say he enjoyed his perversion till the moment his soul entered eternity.

And that is profoundly sad. For whatever happiness he found in his sin he will now pay for it in eternal damnation – a hell so great mankind cannot comprehend its horrendousness anymore than we can grasp the glory of Heaven. So what comfort is there in that he “died happy”?

There is only one way to die happy. And that is if you know the Lord as your one and only Savior. You know that no matter how sick you might be, or how bad your estate is in, or how hurt your children are; when you pass into eternity you will be in the presence of your glorious Savior and the home He has prepared for you. No more sorrows. No more tears. No more sin. Eternal glory. Eternal praise. Eternal rest. And it is only with that hope in mind can a person “die happy”.

Death is all around us every day. Pick up your newspaper and glance at the obituaries. Note the hearse you pass on your way to Wal-mart. Or join the hospice business for a day or two. Death is as much a part of life and living itself. And when your life is ended, where will your death take you? Will you be ushered into the presence of your great Creator? Or will you simply “die happy” but remain eternally condemned? The options are a matter of life and death – eternal life and death. Don’t settle for “die happy”. Seek God for everlasting joy.