To be gone too soon is to die suddenly when there are still many years ahead to live. To be gone too soon is to stop half way when there is still a very long way to go. To be gone too soon is to quit when you have not reached the finishing line. To be gone too soon is to throw in the towel when you have not laid hold on the price of your high calling of God in Christ Jesus. To be gone too soon is to die with many graces, gifts and talents unexpressed. Like someone once said, “the richest place on the surface of the earth is the grave yard!” For therein lie buried many great books that should have been written but never were written. In the grave lies buried many dreams and visions that never saw the light of day. At the graveyard lie buried songs that were never given sound to. At the burial ground are many ministries that never found expression and fulfilment in life because the vessels of expressions have gone too soon! To be gone too soon is to become a history in your life time: living in the shadow of the reality; going about with testimony of “When I used to be” while nothing new and serious is really happening in the present. To be Gone too soon is to live the life of a banana plant, its first fruit is also the last fruit; its first appearance is also the last appearance.
The scripture is replete with cases of people who are gone too soon. Gehazi was gone too soon. His ministry came to an abrupt end as he tried to make merchandize of the grace of God. He disappeared from the scene without giving expression to his glorious calling. And since he loved the gift of leprosy more than the glory of the prophetic calling, he left nothing behind but generational plague of leprosy! Balaam was another Gone Too Soon. He perished with the wicked and never lived to see what he prayed for: he had earlier prayed to God to die the death of the righteous; but alas! He ended up dying the death of a sinner! He died before his day because he loved the wages of unrighteousness. Absalom was a very promising, handsome, and charming prince who could have made an indelible mark in the land of Israel, but alas! He was gone too soon! He went away suddenly in the prime of his years. He died an abnormal death of a rebel, being rejected by heaven and earth, he died hanging in the space. Pride, arrogance, usurping the authority sent him to an early grave! Judas Iscariot was gone too soon. While the world of the Jew and the Gentiles were waiting to rejoice in the brightness of his shining like the rest of the apostles of Christ among whom he was numbered, the impure love of money became the sudden grave of his untimely death. His place was given to another and his bishopric taken by another. He died without being a partaker of the glorious Pentecost experience; he died without the joy of proclaiming the glorious gospel of the Resurrected Christ. He was gone too soon! Demas also was not left out of the obituary list of the Gone Too Soon. He appeared for a season but suddenly disappeared before he could become something or somebody tangible in the Kingdom of Christ. Like a mirage, he raised the hopes of Paul and the people as a potential apostle but suddenly, he was swept off his feet by the boisterous wind of this present passing world. There are also many contemporary people who have gone too soon…
There are many people today who are still living but are gone too soon. They started out well but could not hold out well. They are not dead yet but they have become history in their life time. They have become shadows of themselves while still alive. When the world tasted the first fruit of their appearance in ministry, career and purpose, the world had hoped to rejoice for a season in the brightness of their shinning; but alas, they are gone too soon! Though they are alive, yet they have been silenced, and their voices are no longer being heard “on the mountain top of Israel.” And since they have lost their savour; they have consequently become trodden under feet of men as they are neither fit for the land nor the dung hill. Intelligent unbelievers quote them as examples to discourage and quench the zeal of upcoming ministers.
There is a statement of purpose over your life meant to be delivered. You are a voice ordained to be heard in the world. Your world is waiting to rejoice in the brightness of your shinning. Should you be gone too soon, you will leave your world groping in perpetual darkness. There is something unique God has packaged within you as solution to your generation. You cannot afford to leave your generation the way you met it. Live to deliver the promise of your life’s purpose.
Don’t be gone too soon, avoid the pitfalls and traps that normally send people to their early grave. Abstain from the love of money which many having placed ahead of purpose, have made a shipwreck of their calling. It is the love of money that has made many to make merchandize of the grace of God. The House of God has been turned to the place of buying and selling. Many things are now available for sales in the house of God. Christian ministers now bargain for honorarium before honouring invitation to minister. Church members are now being exploited in the name of Christ. The love of money has introduced many ungod
ly practices into the church. No wonder the Bible exhorts us to hold faith and good conscience. Many today only hold faith without good conscience. Beware of covetousness. The love of money is the root of all evil. Jesus says the life of a person does not consist in the abundance that he has. Many met their early death in purpose as they began to merchandize the grace and the gifts of God in exchange for money. Don’t make money your priority in life and ministry. Let impact be the focus of your life. Learn to listen to what God would have you do per time. Where God leads, He equally provides.
Don’t be despair of life. Jesus does not plead for our sudden untimely removal by death, for to abide in the flesh is needful for others if not profitable for ourselves. He asks that we may be kept from the evil, but He never asks for us to be admitted into the inheritance of the saints in glory till we are full age. Christians often want to die when they have any trouble. Ask them why, and they tell you, “Because we would be with the Lord.” We fear it is not so much because they are longing to be with the Lord, as because they desire to get rid of their troubles; else they would feel the wish to die at other times when not under the pressure of trial. They want to go home, not so much for the Saviour’s company, as to be at rest. Now it is quiet right to desire to depart if we can do it in the same spirit that Paul did, because to be with Christ is far better but the wish to escape from trouble is a selfish one. Rather let your care and wish be to glorify God by your life here as long as He pleases, even though it be in the midst of toil, and conflicts and suffering, and leave Him to say when “it is enough.”
Thanks for reading. God bless you.
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