Are you ready to die?  I mean really ready?This year has been really crazy for my wife.  In January, her grandmother, who she loved dearly, passed away at 87.  She was a sharp old gal.  She could easily talk for hours to the point that if the phone connection got broken, my wife couldn’t call back because her grandmother was still talking on the phone!  Then, in February, her mom passed away.She wasn’t expected to make it past Christmas because she had a very nasty case of lung cancer.  If that wasn’t enough, her grandfather passed away this weekend at 86.  These folks were considered “old” by most standards.   But, you see, “old” is a relative term.  Old compared to what? 

Let’s say you picked up a grain of sand on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.And every step you took required 10,000 years.  Furthermore, assume you would never die (so you could complete this task).Say you took that grain of sand and carried it, on foot, 10,000 years/step, to the top of Pike’s Peak in Colorado.  Then, you walked back, 10,000 years/step to the beach at Fort Lauderdale, Florida and got another grain of sand and did the same thing.  By the time you had taken every grain of sand off that beach, and all the beaches of the world, that would only be the beginning of time!  And, if we’re lucky, we get to live for about 100 years, give or take a few.   So, from that perspective, we hardly live at all!

Now consider, in light of how long eternity is, how very, very short our earthly lives are.  And, in eternity, we will be in one of two places.  Glorifying God in ecstasy that surpasses earthly human imagination, or suffering in the fires of hell, in agony that surpasses earthly human imagination.  What a dichotomy!  What a difference!  And, yet, most of us dull witted, near-sighted people here on earth live like our earthly lives are it.  There’s nothing more after that.  We get educated in science, business, etc., getting high school diplomas, bachelors degrees, masters degrees, and PhD’s.And, yet, most Americans have a very basic, second or third grade education (at best) in their faith! 

What’s wrong with this picture?  Everything!  We need to get our priorities straight, people!  Our eternity is at stake!The only worthy goals that we have in this life, are the salvation of our souls and the salvation of as many other souls as we can manage.And how should we approach this?  By knowing, loving, and serving God in this life, so that we can be happy with Him in the next! 

The first step is to know God.  We cannot love someone we don’t know.  And we don’t serve someone we don’t love.  So, the first step is to know God.  What are you doing about it?  How much time are you spending trying to know God and know about God?  There’s no time like the present to begin!

We have, in our age, amazing resources available to us to learn about God.  The surest information about God is that which is taught by the Catholic Church.  Why do I say this?  Because God, Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, came to earth and trained the Apostles with what we need to know.  He commanded them to go forth and spread His teachings, also training others likewise to do the same.  We have an unbroken line of Apostles and their successors for 2000 years.  We also have Jesus’ promise that the “gates of hell” (doctrinal error) would never prevail against His Church.So, we have Christ’s guarantee that the Catholic Church (the only Christian Church for the first 1000 years of Christianity) has the fullness of Divinely revealed truth in its teaching!

The Internet is chock full of tremendous resources that you can use to learn more about God, to learn to love God, and to learn to serve God.  One such site is Alabama Catholic Resources, where there are hundreds of FREE.mp3 files for download that contain orthodox (means “right teaching”) talks and lectures by renowned Catholic authors and clergy.  Avail yourself of these and get on the road to learning more about God so that you can have a better shot at a great eternity.  God bless!

Author: Steven J. Bergeron, Cradle Catholic 

Website:  http://www.alabamacatholicresources.com