Excuse me, but this is one I couldn’t pass up. I have this strange way of seeing things in a different way than the way the author might have intended to write it. For example: a sign in an optometrist office read, “Eyes examined while you wait.” What I want to know, “Is there another way to have them examined?” It isn’t like you can drop them off and pick them up on Friday!
Anyway, such was the case when I read this headline several days ago: “Test Helps You Predict Chances of Dying.” I wanted to raise my hand and say, “Oh, I know the answer to this one and I don’t even have to take the test!”
The article detailed how doctors have developed a battery of questions that will predict for those above the age of 50 [with amazing accuracy they say] when you will die. The purpose is “to try to help doctors and families get a firmer sense for what the future may hold,” to help plan health care accordingly, says lead author Dr. Sei Lee, a geriatrics researcher at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who helped develop it.
This is one game where you want a low score. Zero to 5 points says your risk of dying in four years is less than 4 percent. With 14 points, your risk rises to 64 percent. Just being male gives you 2 points. So does having diabetes, being a smoker, and getting pooped trying to walk several blocks. Points accrue with each four-year increment after age 60. The test doesn't ask what you eat, but it does ask if you can push a living room chair across the floor.
The point is simple: technology is great and all that we learn that benefits people is wonderful. However, Hebrews 9:27 says, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” The chances of dying are 100 percent. Of course, I did mention an “unless” in the title. That unless is that those that are alive at the coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ will not die but will be changed in the “twinkling of an eye.” For the follower of Christ, whether we die or are changed at His Second Coming, it’s a 100 percent eternal guarantee…Jesus is coming again!
