Is tomorrow promised?

I so loved Bernie Mac. I'm going to miss him. I went looking all over youtube for clips of him doing his comedy.

I wasn't going to post on him but I went over to a site I always visit, a woman of wise words, and she said, "Tomorrow is never promised." A part of me says...yes, that's true. But the other part of me thought about 1 Timothy 1:18

This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare

and I said to myself: True, we don't know when we are going to die. But if we have a prophecy given us of some great work we have to do, then should we not shout to the devil, "I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord because the Lord has appointed me to do these great works! HE told me this by prophecy and I will not give up."

True, tomorrow is not promised us, but when death comes to us can we not challenge it as many in the Bible also challenged it? Christianity isn't a religion of fatalism. Once we're dead, we're dead. But in the parable of the useless vineyard, in the story of Hezekiah, in the story of the syro-phoenician woman, we see that there is such a thing as bargaining with God. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross lists bargaining as one of the five stages of dying. But she doesn't mention that sometimes -- very rarely-- bargaining works. I suspect bargaining doesn't work for the most part because God knows the sick person simply will not change or that the sick person has fulfilled his work on earth already and must go home to a greater reward. But I don't want to accept the fact that tomorrow is not promised. As far as I am concerned, Tomorrow is promised me until God tells me it is not.

Yes, we should definitely live as best and as happily as we can...and do all the good we can to as many as we can. I tend to be a bit on the morbid side, unfortunately so I tend to always think that in the end, we'll be dead much longer than we're alive. And am hoping and trusting that that place where the dead go, if there is an afterlife, will be full of great joys (minus the great sex, probably.) But I totally feel we should enjoy this life under the sun. And we must do all the good we can. Because it's our goodness in this life -- much more than our happiness-- that will count. When I hear that someone I love has died, I think: Have I enjoyed life? But I also think: Have I done all the great works I am supposed to do? It gets me working as well as enjoying. Death cracks a mean whip.

For your enjoyment...a couple of his routines. BE WARNED EXPLICIT MATERIAL...yeah, yeah, I know. I'm a carnal Christian.




-C