Hebrews 9:27a
Just as man is destined to die once...

Did you know that if you are stung by a Australian Sea Wasp you will die within 4 minutes? I didn't, and very few other people that I know do, either. But my son soon-to-be eight year-old son Will does. Not from experience, mind you, but from a book he read about dangerous creatures. Yeah, and so what does your family talk about around the dinner table? Boring stuff like what happened at work or school? Not us, baby. We're all about practical knowledge like how long it takes for the poison from a jellyfish on the other side of the globe to kill you if it stings you.

Anyway, when I asked how long it took, Will said 4 minutes. I said that was fast and he said, "Yeah! That means you'd have to say goodbye to your whole family faster than 4 minutes!" I just kind of looked at him like someone looks at another person who is much smarter than they are. He is, in fact, much better at putting things together than the rest of us. After all, he knew right away that if your time is ending, there are certain important things that you might want to take care of, and you probably need to take care of them before your time ends. As I said, brilliant.

So, your time is ending. No, probably not in 4 minutes (unless you've been swimming near a school of Australian Sea Wasps), but at some point. The beauty of dying from a Sea Wasp sting is that you can pretty much set the stopwatch to calculate the exact end. Life, of course, doesn't usually give us that luxury. However, even though we don't know the time frame, we do know the way this will play out. You will live and then you will die. Aren't there some important things to take care of before the end comes? You better believe it.

So what are you still sitting here reading for? Get out there and do them.

And don't swim near an Australian Sea Wasp.