Last week, as I served alongside the marvelous group of ministry leaders from Washington D.C. pictured above, I was reminded of the Scottish preacher Robert Murray M’Cheyne, who was only 29 years of age when he died in 1843. His ministry lasted a mere six years, and yet because he possessed so deep a love for the Lord and for people the day of his funeral is described in this manner:
“Business was almost totally suspended throughout the bounds of his hometown, and, hours before the time appointed for the funeral arrived, crowds began to appear from far and near, anxious to pay their last respects to the one whom living they had esteemed so highly. Long before the hour arrived, the whole line of road intervening between the dwelling-house and the churchyard was crowded with men, women, and children, principally of the working classes. Every window overlooking the procession, and the church itself, were likewise densely filled with females, almost all attired in deep mourning, and the very walls and housetops were surmounted with anxious onlookers. Altogether, not fewer than six or seven thousand people must have assembled.”
What caused M’Cheyne to leave such an indelible impression in such a relatively short period of time? We find the answer in a journal entry, in which he wrote,
“Live so as to be missed when dead.”
Psalm 90:12 reads,
“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Our parents teach us to count from the earliest age. We count everything – blocks, fingers and toes, eventually moving on to sports stats, finances…etc. However, the Lord has to be the teacher when it comes to “numbering our days” – realizing we will not live forever. Ecclesiastes 3:11 states that “[The Lord] has planted eternity in the human heart.”
Pastor John Piper has wisely said,
“There is scarcely any thought that will purge our priorities of vain and worldly perceptions like the thought of our imminent death. O how cleansing it is to ponder the kind of life we would like to look back on when we come to die. There is great wisdom in such meditation. Therefore, think often of your dying.”
This concept of daily “pondering the kind of life we would like to look back on when we come to die” is one Robert Murray M’Cheyne clearly grasped, and we would be wise to embrace as well. For we have “only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last” so….“Live so as to be missed.”
