{"id":38997,"date":"2018-11-09T11:41:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T11:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/you-and-nfl-quarterback-kirk-cousins-are-going-to-die\/"},"modified":"2018-11-09T11:41:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T11:41:00","slug":"you-and-nfl-quarterback-kirk-cousins-are-going-to-die","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/you-and-nfl-quarterback-kirk-cousins-are-going-to-die\/","title":{"rendered":"You (and NFL Quarterback Kirk Cousins) Are Going to Die"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kirk Cousins, the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, has a sculpture outside his house with an odd purpose: it&rsquo;s intended to remind him that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mbird.com\/2018\/11\/you-and-kirk-cousins-are-going-to-die\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">he&rsquo;s going to die<\/a>. Well, sort of.<\/p>\n\n<p>Planning to live to 90, the quarterback has a jar of 720 stones (one for each month he intends to live) at his home. Each month, he takes a stone out of the jar and carries it with him. He told ESPN&rsquo;s Tory Zawacki Roy that &ldquo;every month [he&rsquo;s] going to take out a stone, put it in [his] pocket, and think: &lsquo;Once this month is over, this is gone. You can&rsquo;t get it back, it&rsquo;s gone for good.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>It&rsquo;s only a little morbid until you remember that, as Cousins takes out the stones, he has a visual reminder&mdash;right outside his front door, no less&mdash;that his time on Earth is getting shorter and shorter. That may sound morbid at first, but it&rsquo;s also biblical. The idea actually came to Cousins from a Bible teacher, in response to Psalm 90:12: &ldquo;Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.&rdquo; This verse, Cousins says, is &ldquo;about the importance of leaving a mark and making a deposit in people&rsquo;s lives in a way that matters. In other words, you have an understanding that life is coming to an end someday, and that we only have so many days. There&rsquo;s wisdom in that.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3737,3883,4025,4027,4442,4493,4530,4697,4708,4748,4970,5066,5159,5279],"tax_ctp_topics":[382,384,401],"class_list":["post-38997","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-eternal-temporary","tax_ctp_tags-fruitfulness","tax_ctp_tags-fulfillment","tax_ctp_tags-meaning-of-life","tax_ctp_tags-mortality","tax_ctp_tags-need-for-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-preparation-for-death","tax_ctp_tags-priorities","tax_ctp_tags-purpose","tax_ctp_tags-short-life","tax_ctp_tags-sports","tax_ctp_tags-time","tax_ctp_tags-wisdom"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>You (and NFL Quarterback Kirk Cousins) Are Going to Die - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/you-and-nfl-quarterback-kirk-cousins-are-going-to-die\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You (and NFL Quarterback Kirk Cousins) Are Going to Die - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kirk Cousins, the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, has a sculpture outside his house with an odd purpose: it&rsquo;s intended to remind him that he&rsquo;s going to die. Well, sort of. Planning to live to 90, the quarterback has a jar of 720 stones (one for each month he intends to live) at his home. 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