This week I received an email from a friend and former professor of mine at SWBTS. His letter reminded me just how close eternity is for each of us. I found myself burdened for their families and their churches. My heart goes out to them.

Friends, Former Students, and Prayer Partners,

Fred Haddock was a Seminary student of mine several years ago. He was also a fellow church member at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth. He sang in the choir and his wife, Rosanna, played the piano on occasion. Fred filled in as church Custodian for a time. He was a friend. Fred died yesterday of a diabetic heart attack. He was 34 years old. Fred was serving at Calvary Baptist Church in San Marcos, Texas, as Children’s Minister. Please join me in praying for Rosanna and other members of the family as well as the church families that have been stunned with this news.

Also, some of you are a great distance from Texas and may not get the news from the University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. Their pastor, Kyle Lake, was electrocuted while baptizing yesterday. He touched a microphone with a wet hand. He was 33 and had been pastor there for seven years. Pray for his family and his church. This should also be a wake up call for all of us who stand in a baptistery with microphones on us or nearby.

Dan Crawford

I am 37 and the last thing on my mind as I go about my life of following Jesus in this city is the possibility that I might die in an instant. Granted in relationships with many drug users I am constantly aware that eternity is close; each time they leave our fellowship I wonder if I will see them again on this side of existence.

The fact is, eternity is close for each of us. Eternity is now. The Scripture says that “God has set eternity in the hearts of men.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) This is reality from God’s perspective. It is a call button that should press us to call out to Him. This is the force that drives ultimate questions in people. As I read the Gospels I notice that Jesus was acutely aware of this reality in the lives of people. He told stories and asked questions that were intended to hit that call button; his stories and questions were disturbing. They made eternity an issue–by making now an issue. His message is often summarized as “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”

I wonder if repentance can become the counter-cultural lifestyle characterizing post-moderns. I wonder if repentance must become the action of the heart informing the lifestlye of the emerging church. I suppose it will not, unless today’s messenger of the Gospel becomes comfortable with the agitation required. I find myself compelled though by the death of two men in their thirties, both of whom were committed followers of Jesus, to become an agitator. Time is short, eternity is forever.