Reflections on the death of a friend: challenges

Unless Christ returns first, every one of us must die, and none of us can tell when. Given this, we must live so as to be ready to die. One means of assessing whether or not we are so living is to bring near the day of our death, and spend an hour in the contemplation of it, and live a week in the light of it.

Several questions are posited as a means to help in this self-examination: firstly and fundamentally, am I safe in Christ?

If our entrance to heaven is secured, we must then ensure that our enjoyment of heaven is enhanced. We ask, then, if the day of my death were at hand: are there graces, habitual or occasional, which I would wish to have cultivated? Are there corruptions, habitual or occasional, which I would wish to have mortified? Are there duties undone or badly done, which I would wish to have performed well? Are there words yet unspoken which I would wish to have said? Are there relationships, close or distant, which I would wish to have rectified?

Are you so living as to be ready to die?