The Ultimate Failure

Imagine having the knowledge and opportunity to have cashed in all your investments a day before the stock market started to tank. That wouldn't really have taken insider trading would it? Everyone knew the housing bubble was going to burst. Very few knew that the national paper supply (the places where businesses borrow millions overnight) would go broke. Everyone should have seen that the government and the world cannot continue to spend with impunity. Overall, it was coming and many people knew it was coming but most people wanted to get out at the last possible moment.

So, most of us had our retirement accounts and other investments tank. They still haven't recovered. They may never recover.I guess I'll be preaching and writing this blog until I can no longer spell my name. That's okay. I planned on doing that anyway. The only difference was that I planned on working for free after retirement age. Now, I won't have that privilege. I'll take my retirement money, fill up my tank with gas and ride on it until it's all gone. Then, I'll just ride my bicycle.

The real problem was waiting too long. I should have gotten out in July of 2007. I knew this was coming but I just did nothing. Doing nothing can be more disastrous than doing something sometimes.

Still, this is not the ultimate failure. My failure to move my retirement account has a shelf life. It won't matter at all when I am dead. I won't regret a cent that was lost. It won't mean anything to me.

The ultimate failure is having the grace of God confront you but to reject it all of your life.

I have seen so many people know that they need to give their lives to Christ but they think they can do it later. They may have heard the story of the "thief on the cross" and decide they want to make a decision like his. They want to wait to the last minute. We know that there will be a last minute but we don't know when that is. We assume we will slowly get worse and then we can make this decision but I can tell you that thousands die each day not expecting it to be their day of death. They die in car wrecks, random acts of violence, heart attacks and strokes. They get dementia or Alzheimer's or any other mental condition which takes away their ability to think and fade into a state where they can't make a decision for Christ.

This failure has no shelf life.It is made for eternity. This decision to put off coming to Christ became a permanent decision. Eventually, the tomorrow in which this decision was to be made never came and there were no more tomorrows.

Many of us want to be the last person out. We want to ride in the luxury of the Titanic for as long as possible. Why jump on the lifeboat when caviar sits in the dining room and the band still plays? Surely, the lifeboat will be cramped and lack the amenities I deserve. Surely, there is still time to be rescued.

Or is there?

2 Corinthians 6:1-2 (NIV)
¹ As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. ² For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.