I have heard that we can add 11 minutes to our lives by petting a dog. If so I need only to pet my dog 131 times each day to live forever. I’m all set. It’s a wonder she isn’t bald from all the rubbing. Now I just have to get my wife to do the same and in 48 more years we will celebrate our centennial wedding anniversary.
Fifty years ago people used to say every aspirin one took subtracted 11 minutes from their life. My response used to be, “Who would want to live for 11 more minutes with a raging headache?”
On my mother’s 90th birthday she made a secret wish. She wouldn’t tell but I always knew what it was. She wanted to live to be 100. She made it to 97.
My wish is much more ambitious. I never want to die. Therefore I choose to take Jesus up on His promise to Mary and Martha. “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.’” Sounds good to me. The French philosopher Blaise Pascal used to say if we trust Jesus on this we have everything to gain. And if Jesus wasn’t telling the truth we have nothing to lose by believing Him.
So as I sit here with my dog pressed close to my legs, taking an aspirin for a slight headache, I choose to, and I urge you to also choose with me, to take Jesus up on His promise. What a wonderful way to live. Being a Christian is the best.
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 9, 2015
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org