In our day, it's more likely than ever that some folks who live around us will raise eyebrows to think that we look for something on the other side of death. So what! Some folks have always raised their eyebrows about anything which called for taking a faith leap. But consider the alternative! I'd rather be prepared to go to dinner with a host who might forget to come, than sleep through everything and wake up in the dark, or find myself hoofing it down to K-Mart for an oil-flask-refill, trying to hedge my bets, while the host arrived and closed the door without me.

The pastor of one Florida congregation, who has made an outreach program famous, uses one question which offends some people by its tone. He asks: "If you should die tonight, why should God let you into his heaven?"

The question is worth asking. For those of us who live in the grace of God, who celebrate his "Yes!" to us each day we live, a better-focused version of the question might be, "If we knew we'd die tonight, could we be ready to face God?"