Deuteronomy 30:15-20 / Luke 9:22-25
I set before you
life and death: “Choose life!”
Sometimes news reporters embarrass us by the insensitive
questions they ask people, especially people who have just suffered a major
tragedy. For example, a news reporter asked John Cogan, a 51-year-old victim of
terminal cancer, “What are your feelings as you face death?” Cogan stunned the
reporter and his audience by saying: “There’s a joy I can’t express deep down
inside me. I feel perfectly free. . . .I want to reach out and embrace the whole
universe.” Cogan’s terminal illness had set before him the choice of life or
death. He chose life—eternal life.