The fourth installment of our Not Too Young to Die series has been a long-time in coming, but I’m happy to announce that we are now back on track. If you haven’t read the first three installments, use the links at the bottom of this post to catch up.

In our last installment, Your Life Story, we discussed three marks of a tragically wasted life. Today’s post looks at the first: a lukewarm attitude of complacency. Here is one of the best descriptions of complacency that I’ve come across:

“Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. ‘Good enough’ becomes today’s watchword and tomorrow’s standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course — downhill. They draw false strength from looking back.”

For Christians this often reveals itself when we become satisfied avoiding evil, but not pursuing good. Psalm 1 tells us that “blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, no stands in the way of sinners, no sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night.”

Charles Spurgeon comments, “Perhaps some of you can claim a sort of negative purity, because you do not walk in the way of the ungodly; but let me ask you — is your delight in the law of God? Do you study God’s Word? Do you make it the man of your right hand, your best companion and hourly guide? If not, the blessing of Psalm 1 does not belong to you.”

This is important, because we’re often tempted to sign-up for a less “extreme” version of the Christian life. Instead of the Platinum “Jim Elliot” Membership, we like the sound of the Bronze “Joe Christian” Membership. Less benefits, but less effort. Sounds good, right? But Scripture doesn’t leave that option open to us.

Writes C.S. Lewis: “It is hard; but the sort of compromise we’re hankering after is harder — in fact, it is impossible. We are like eggs at present. And we cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

In other words, we can’t just go on being ordinary, decent Christians, giving God part of our lives while holding back the rest. Either we are hatched and learn to fly or we are a dud that will soon start to stink.

The first mark of a tragically wasted life is complacency.

Some questions for discussion:

• Read the description of complacency above. What “symptoms” of complacency do you see in your own life?
• Are you known for what you don’t do, or for what you do? Why do you think it’s easier to just avoid evil than to pursue righteousness? [Note: Tasha has posted an excellent response to this question. Check it out!]
• In the words of C.S. Lewis, are you trying to just be an ordinary, decent egg? What would it take for you to “hatch and learn to fly?”
• Katie’s “Bonus” Question from the Comment Section: What is the difference between contentment and complacency?

I am convinced our lives will be no better than our view of death. In Luke 9:23-25 Jesus spoke the following: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Jesus makes it clear that depending on how we think about death we will either save our lives, or we will waste them. We can waste our lives trying to save them, or we can find our lives striving to spend them for Christ.

Drawing primarily from the life and death of Jim Elliot, as well as Michael Billings, we will spend the remainder of this series examining three marks of a tragically wasted life, and then three marks of gloriously spent life. Here’s a quick preview:

3 Marks of a Tragically Wasted Life
• A lukewarm attitude of complacency.
• A lazy habit of procrastination.
• A paralyzed lifestyle of timidity.

3 Marks of a Gloriously Spent Life

• A hot-hearted desire to be useful.
• A relentless passion for the good use of time.
• A constant readiness to risk for the Gospel.

Some questions for discussion:

• Does your life contain any marks of a wasted life?
• Does your life contain any marks of a spent life?

Death is a morbid subject. Death is scary and depressing. People shouldn’t think about death. Young people definitely shouldn’t think about death. After all, we’re young, we’re invincible, and we’ve got our whole lives ahead of us. Right?

Wrong! My goal throughout this series is to show that thinking rightly about death is the key to living rightly (and fully) before God. Today I hope to demonstrate that (1) young people must think about death and (2) young people need not fear death.

Young People Must Think About Death

I believe young people must think about death for the simple reason that young people die. James 4:13-15 warns us against presuming about the future, saying, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

When James says life is a vapor, he doesn’t just mean 70-80 years goes by quick (even though it does). He means you don’t even have tomorrow guaranteed.

I met Michael Billings when he was eighteen. A year later — on November 4th, 2007 — Michael was in a fatal accident driving home between Dallas and San Antonio.

Such a premature death, we might say. Yet two years before his death, at seventeen, Michael had delivered a sermon entitled “Life is But a Vapor” saying: “Young men, it is appointed a day for you to die, and no matter how strong and healthy you may seem now, the day of your death may be very near. ‘Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth’ (Prov. 27:1).”

Michael understood that you can forget the odds. If God has ordained for you to die at nineteen in a car accident the odds are 1 in 1 — not 1 in 84. Young people die. Young people must think about death.

Young People Need Not Fear Death

But young people need not fear death, because God has removed the eternal risk. Romans 8:1 tells us, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:38-39 says, “Neither death nor life . . . will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus told His disciples, “Some of you they will put to death. . . . But not a hair of your head will perish” (Luke 21). In John 11:25 we read, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

This is promise of the song, In Christ Alone: “No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me. From life’s first cry to dying breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of Hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand, till He returns or calls me home, here in the love of Christ I stand.”

We don’t hold our lives. We can’t avoid death. For a non-believer that is terrifying. For us, there is nothing more comforting than knowing Jesus commands our destiny. We need to change our thinking from “I’m invincible because I’m young” to “I’m invincible until God calls me home.” We are saved from foolish confidence and needless fear — God’s timing is perfect.

Jim Elliot wrote, “I know that my hopes and plans for myself could not be any better than He has arranged and fulfilled them. Thus may we all find it, and know the truth of the Word which says, ‘He will be our Guide even until death.’”

Some questions for discussion:

• Has your life been marked by foolish confidence or needless fear?
• What does it look like to live as if life is a vapor?
• What does it look like to live unafraid of death?
• Bonus: What is the difference between foolhardiness and fearlessness?

Picture in your minds a six-year-old boy; curious, slightly mischievous, and easily impressed by the strength and talents of grownups. So, when a maintenance man comes to fix his family’s furnace the six-year-old is standing right outside the furnace closet, watching and admiring.

While he is watching and admiring he notices something he has never noticed before: a small hole in the side panel of the furnace that the repairman is using to gain access to the furnaces inner workings. An idea sneaks into this little boy’s head. This is his chance to do adult work!

So, when the repairman finishes the job, switches BACK ON the breaker which powers the furnace, and drives away, the six-year-old boy finds a screwdriver, shuts himself in the dark closet, and prepares to plunge the screwdriver into the hole – where 240 volts of electricity await him.

Now, for those of you who are getting worried about the well-being of this sweet, darling little boy — don’t worry. I can assure with special authority that he doesn’t die. You see, this sweet, darling little boy was me.

So there I was in the dark, darkness of the closet, and I plunge my screwdriver into the dark, darkness of the hole. And suddenly there was brilliant light! There was a flash, and a poof, and a PSzzzzzzzz, and the smell of burnt plastic filled the air.

In a complete daze I stumbled out into the living area of house where my entire family, who had heard the sound and observed the lights flicker, were all frozen in mid-motion. My face was black, my eyes were bursting out of my head, and my hair was going poof. But I was alive! And I was alive because my screwdriver was dead. My little screwdriver was bent, blackened, and the peculiar smell of melting plastic came from the plastic handle — which had melted over my hand.

Now, this was just one of many near death experiences for me as a child. I recently discovered that the odds of dying from accidental electrocution are 1 in 9,968. I’m not sure whether I raised or lowered my odds with that incident.

Odds of Dying, Any Cause: 1 in 1 (100%)

I once came across a handy chart that presents the odds of dying from a number of various causes. Some of it was surprising. For instance, a person is more likely to die from a bee sting than from a flood, earthquake, or lighting. The least likely cause of death listed was “fireworks discharge” at 1 in 340,733 — though I have some friends who seem to want to make death by fireworks a more common occurrence.

At the top of the chart was this category — Odds of Dying, Any Cause: 1 in 1 (100%). The article accompanying the chart begins, “You are going to die. It’s going to happen. But how you die is the great mystery of your life.”

In one sense we think too little about death and too much of death. Too little in that we hardly live as if life is but a fleeting breath — and too much in that we spend our lives running away from the finish line. The world says, “Don’t think about death, but be afraid of death.” God says, “Think about death, but don’t be afraid of death.”

The title of this new series is, “Not Too Young To Die” — based on a message I delivered at a missions conference last month. I share it with you, not as an expert on the topic of death, but simply as one who is not too young to die.

Some questions for discussion:

• Have you had any near death experiences? Tell us about them.
• When was the last time you really thought about death?
• Would you describe yourself as afraid of death? Be honest.
• Death is generally considered a morbid subject. As Christians, should we think about death? If so, how should we think about death? If not, why shouldn’t we think about death?