There is a story about a young boy who was writing to his father who was overseas on a dangerous mission. The little boy wrote, ”I hope you will stay alive as long as you live.” What he said may be humorous yet there is a profound truth to be learned from contemplating exactly what he expressed.

It is a sad fact that there are many who are not alive while they live. Jesus knew this for he wrote to the church in Sardis saying ”I know thy works, that thou has a name that you livest, and art dead.” Here were people who had a name of being alive while in fact, Jesus said, they were dead. It is possible for us today to be members of the Sardis ecclesia. Are we staying alive. as long as we live or are we the walking dead?

To be alive is to live for Jesus. Those in Sardis needed to repent, they needed to wake up and live, they needed to watch. Jesus exhorted them to ”be watchful” and he warned them that if they did not watch, he would came on them as a thief, and they would not know what hour he would come.

The coming of Jesus is so near at hand, we need to be watching, we need to stay alive and look for him and live for him as long as we live.

God does not expect us to do more than we are capable but he does want us to be all that we are capable of becoming. In sports a manager will remove a player who doesn’t ”look alive,” who doesn’t hustle. Jesus commended Mary when his disciples were rebuking her for having as they said, wasted the precious ointment. Jesus said of her, ”She hath done what she could.” This is the key, to do what we can. We must each strive to be all that we are capable of becoming, to be alive as long as we live.

God does not ask us to do more than we can do. But are we, like Mary, doing what we CAN? Each of us should be asking ourselves the question, ”What can I do?” And the answer must be something, never nothing, for then we would, like some at Sardis, have a name that we are alive, but really are dead!

So let each of us begin to make a list of things we can do. We can all pray and we can all read. So every day, pray and read the Bible. This we can do.

We can think of others. Mary did that when she annointed Jesus. What can we do for Jesus? We can be kind to other members of his family. Who is sick? Write or phone them. Perhaps we are sick ourselves but the best way of getting over what’s ailing us is to begin to care for others and we soon become so busy we forget how poorly we felt.

It will be amazing how many things we can think to do, when we begin to think. That’s the difference between the dead and the living, the living can think and do and if we are to be alive as long as we live, then we need to be thinking all the time, ”What can I do?” The more we ask this question, the more things we will think to do and the more we do, the more we approach our goal of being all that we are capable of becoming.

Not everyone in Sardis had a name that they lived but were dead, for Jesus tells us that there were a few who were alive and they were walking. That’s what living people do, they move... they do... they live for Jesus and Jesus will soon call them to walk with him into the Kingdom for they will be worthy.

We cannot start sooner than right now so let us begin today to make our list of things we can do and then begin immediately to do them, so that we will stay alive as long as we live and then we will be all that we are capable of becoming. When Jesus comes he will be pleased with us and will invite us to live forever with him in his Kingdom for we, like Mary of old. will have done what we could.