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Key Bible Verses: "Go in through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to destruction is broad and the road wide, so many people enter through it. But the gate that leads to life is narrow and the road difficult, so few people find it." (Matthew 7:13-14, CEB) Dig Deeper: Matthew 7:15-23

Dostoyevsky's encounter with death made life precious beyond measure. The man who would one day author the incomparable Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov said, "Now my life will change; I shall be born again in a new form." God had given him a second chance. Now he was focused on things that matter.

We all will face death, whether before a firing squad at age 20 or in a hospice bed at 90. The mortality rate among humans is 100 percent. The inevitability of that prospect—and what comes after—should get our full attention, should marvelously focus the mind. But it often doesn't, because the thought of death is unpleasant. What Blaise Pascal saw among his contemporaries in 17th century France can easily be said of our times: "Being unable to cure death, wretchedness, and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things."

But refusing to think about unhappy things won't make them go away. "We do not make the universe hold its breath by holding ours," says Peter Kreeft in Three Philosophies of Life. Reality doesn't adjust itself to fit our likes and dislikes. It is tragic foolishness, criminal negligence, not to make the fact of death a fact of life.

—Ben Patterson in Muscular Faith

My Response: How should the shortness of life, and the inevitability of death, affect the way I live and the things I consider important?

Adapted from Muscular Faith (Tyndale, 2011) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.

Copyright © 2013 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Dear heavenly Father, help me to keep focused on what really matters—on what will last long after my life on earth is finished.

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