WHEN IT’S TOO LATE
By Mark Grant
A young insurance agent had tried repeatedly to
convince an elderly man to buy fire coverage for his home. “No” the
homeowner kept saying. “It is well built, and I maintain it properly.” “My
house will never catch fire.” But one day it did! The elderly man drove
franticly into the parking lot of the insurance agents office and started asking
to buy an insurance policy for his home. It was then that the young man began to
see the thick black smoke swell up into the sky in the direction that the
elderly man lived. So he reluctantly turned and looked into the worried face of
the older man and said, “there is nothing that I can do for you.” “It’s too
late.” Although this story may seem too silly to be true, it does teach the
folly of presumption, and of putting off until tomorrow a decision that needs to
be made today.
Jesus taught a similar story of a rich man when
He said, "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no room
to store my crops?' “So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and
build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. ‘And I will say
to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease;
eat, drink, and be merry.” “But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul
will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have
provided?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not
rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21). Someone once defined a fool as one
whose plans end at the grave. What did the rich fool have for the next life? The
person who trusts in wealth makes a foolish investment for in a single day, the
rich man became poor. This man made three mistakes. He assumed that (1) wealth
is for hoarding (v. 18). (2) wealth is just for self with no thought of others’
needs (v. 19). (3) wealth can satisfy the deeper needs of human life (vv.
20-21). Planning for retirement or making preparations before death is wise, but
neglecting life after death is far more disastrous. Jesus is challenging us to
think beyond earthbound goals and to use what we have been given for God’s
Kingdom. Faith, obedience and servanthood are the way to become rich toward God.
True security lies in always doing God’s will, not in amassing possessions.
It was Jesus who taught, “Do not lay up for
yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves
break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where
your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6: 19-21) Jesus
tells us that the only true treasures worth living for are heavenly ones, for
the richest people on earth are those who invest their lives in Heaven (Prov.
13:7). Let us therefore strive to be rich in good works toward God, storing up
for ourselves a good foundation for the future, that we may lay hold on eternal
life (1 Tim. 6:17-19). We cannot repent too soon, for none of us know how soon
it may be too late!