IM MORTAL

Written by

Christopher Mentzer

“Do No Try This At Home” is a phrase generally seen as a disclaimer on certain television shows that feature dangerous stunts or other things in which professionals have been training to do for many years. And yet those in their youth will try to imitate these very same stunts themselves. Why? Well not necessarily because they find it easy but because it’s the thrill of the stunt and also they don’t look ahead and see the possible danger of failing. It’s a certain level of immortality that young people feel because, to them, their whole life is ahead of them and death only happens to old people.

The dictionary definition for immortal is ‘Exempt from Death’ or ‘Imperishable’. In other words, you can never die or you live forever. But this is not true and we all, eventually, will die.

In addition, the dictionary also defines immortal on the basis of a noun in that even after a person dies, his work continues on whether it is books, music, or an architectural structure; this is certain immortality in that. But they too will disappear in the end as the apostle Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3: 10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

Just like God, Death is not a respecter of persons. There is no minimum age requirement before someone departs from this world. Anywhere from stillborn babies and children is their infancy are just as much a victim of death as are those in their 80s and beyond. Nor is Death a bigot in regards to color, race, creed, social status, or importance in life. Everyone who is born will die!

The important part is the life in between and what we do with it. Not to make a mark in history to say, ‘I was here’, but what you did to serve God and to serve others. Thousands who have lived before us have obediently served God in one capacity or another and yet no one knows their name or exactly what they did for it isn’t recorded anywhere. What’s important though is that God knows who you are and what you have accomplished in service to Him and the Kingdom. (Jn. 10: 14)

Even Jesus, the Son of God, when he came to earth was a servant and not one to be served. In Lk. 22: 27 Jesus said, “For which is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am in the midst of you as he that serveth.” The apostle Paul confirms this in Phil. 2: 7 in which he writes, “but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.”

There is only one way a person can achieve immortality and that is through death. The soul continues on in the afterlife whether to spend eternity in Heaven or in Hell. The apostle Paul explains this immortality in 1 Cor. 15: 53-54, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Live your life for God not for man and not for the pleasure of stunts. The next time you get a sense of being immortal, separate the first two letters into a contraction so it reads…I’m mortal and this will help you stay grounded in truth.