Finite

In Hebrews 9, we read about themes of death and redemption, and the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice for us. We pick up in verse 26:
(26) now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

We have a finite number of days here on this earth, and the Lord has placed us here with a purpose, expecting us to exercise responsible stewardship over the incredible gift of life.  And, our eternal destiny is determined by the choice we make here on earth - whether or not we accept Jesus Christ. We have the promise of eternal life with Him if we accept the sacrifice He made on the cross.  Death is certain for all of us, and its prospect is something that we should not ignore.

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Because we are believers in Christ, we have the promise of a life eternally with Him, and 2nd
Corinthians 5 reinforces that spiritual fact:
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,

Well, there was a piece of sad news that came across the National Football League's Twitter account earlier this week.  USA TODAY reported that a tweet appeared on the NFL's account that said, “We regret to inform our fans that our commissioner, Roger Goodell, has passed away. He was 57. #RIP.”

The website states that NFL spokesmen said the league’s official Twitter account was hacked Tuesday morning when it tweeted out an erroneous statement that the commissioner had died.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told USA TODAY in an email, “Not true. Hacked.”  Another spokesman, Brian McCarthy confirmed that Goodell was still alive.

The article says that a group had been identified as being responsible, and the NFL said that law enforcement had been engaged.  

Now, the story gets a bit sadder.  One of USA TODAY's sports columnists, Nancy Armour, wrote this:

The best measure of a person is the reaction when he or she dies.

In that case Roger Goodell, you’ve got some work to do.

Now, the NFL commissioner was only “dead” for a few minutes Tuesday, not long enough for the heartfelt tributes and praise to start pouring in. And maybe the dark humor shown over his “demise” –his Wikipedia page was briefly changed and the cause of death listed as “deflated lungs” – was because people knew he wasn’t, in fact, dead.

Listen to this...more from Armour:

Goodell’s near-death experience played out on Twitter, and social media is often the Internet equivalent of a sixth-grade classroom left unsupervised after inhaling Pixy Stix. People say stupid, mean and tasteless things on a regular basis.

Even trolls have their limits, though, and the death of someone famous tends to bring about at least some semblance of civility. Look at the outpouring of love and admiration in recent days for Muhammad Ali. Bet you didn’t know how many of your friends were Prince fans until they started posting lyrics and quoting Purple Rain following his death in April.

But, the USA TODAY columnist was not finished.

Goodell is almost universally disliked by NFL fans and, not to speak ill of the “dead,” it’s largely his own doing. Concussions, domestic violence, Deflategate, player discipline – he’s been a case study in bad public relations.

Not that he cares. When he was booed at the NFL Draft in April, Goodell laughed and raised his arms in the universal “Bring it on” sign.

But it’s one thing to be booed at the draft and quite another to watch people dancing on your (virtual) grave.

What was Roger Goodell doing the day he "died?"  According to the column, he had tweeted out that he was playing golf with Jim Kelly. (He was participating in the NFL Hall of Famer's celebrity golf tournament.)

Agree or disagree about the commissioner's effectiveness - after all, the NFL does enjoy an incredible amount of popularity - there was certainly some dark humor at Goodell's expense, it seems, ranging from references to Deflategate to concussions.

I had a few thoughts about this strange turn of events.  The first one had to deal with the stewardship of the days that we have here on earth.  We have been granted a number of years, we've been given a life, and we can examine how well we are living for Christ and reflecting His nature.  And, one of the tests of our effectiveness, which we can never alter, is how we are regarded once we leave this earth.  We need to make sure that we are living in a manner that brings glory to our Creator and show that we are living our days in an effective manner.

And, I have to say: Death is not a laughing matter.  This hack, and the aftermath, was a rather macabre sequence, and maybe, as Nancy Armour said, people didn't regard the hoax as being serious. But, still, death is something that is a serious topic, and each of us should recognize the temporary nature of our stay on earth and make sure we are prepared to leave, when the time comes.  That includes the decision on where you will spend eternity.

Because, after all, death is certain.   No one has an indefinite pass to live here on earth.   Even if we are fortunate enough to be on earth when Jesus comes to retrieve His Church in the rapture, still that means there is a cessation of our time on earth.   Otherwise, barring that exception, we can have certainty that one day we will die, and we are not guaranteed tomorrow.  So, we can live in a way that reflects that certainty, as well as a sense of urgency, in order to enjoy relationships and experiences, as well as to accomplish what God has called us to do while we are here.