The following story is reported to be true, but cannot be verified: After the
"Cold War" was over, a squadron of Russian pilots was invited to participate in
tactical war games at a U.S. Air Force base. A gala dinner was planned by the
Base Commander. Thinking to relax the guests, he offered a WW II toast to open
the meal. Smiling, he lifted his glass and said, in Russian, "Eat, drink and be
merry, for tomorrow you may die." The Russian pilots became very quiet and they
hardly ate; most left quite early. Thinking they didn't care for the food, the
Commander asked a Russian pilot what went wrong.
"Well, comrade commander," he said, "I thought it was going well until your
toast. I don't know what you were meaning to say, but what came out was 'Feast,
drink and make happy, for tomorrow we will kill you'." No matter how you
translate it, it doesn't make for good advice to live by, though it certainly
fits in with our culture's view of the purpose of life. "Live it up! We're all
going to die soon, and you can't enjoy anything beyond the grave, so just focus
on bringing yourself pleasure without regard to what is right or wrong."
It sounds very modern, but it's been around a long, long time. In fact, Paul
said it was a philosophy that might make sense if there was no hope of a
resurrection for us.
"If the dead do not rise, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!'" (I Cor.
15:32b).
But knowing that there will be a resurrection and a judgment and an eternity to
follow, we know that there has to be more to guide our lives than just the
satisfaction of personal pleasure.
So go ahead and eat and drink (and even make merry), but be careful not to take
God out of the picture, for tomorrow you may die.
Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please
authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances
dictate.
Thanks to THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
thought-for-the-day-subscribe@egroups.com
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
everyone to look towards Jesus as the source of all the solutions to our
problems. It contains a daily inspirational story, a Bible verse and encouraging
messages. HTML and plain text versions available.
The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.