Game Over!

Oh, nooooo!” The piercing cry escaped my lips, seeming to shatter the still night air into countless shards. My world was engulfed in darkness as I closed my eyes, expecting the worst, resigned to my fate. Then suddenly, without warning—the horn of my car blared incessantly, jolting me out of my temporary stupor. I’m alive!

I had been driving home after attending a series of evangelistic meetings at the Newlife church, Nairobi. I took my usual route home almost absentmindedly, quietly reflecting on the day’s events. Just as I turned into an intersection I was met by the headlights of an oncoming car at full speed, driving recklessly on the wrong side of the road. I had no time to react. No time to swerve. No time to whisper a quick desperate prayer to my Maker. I was a sitting duck! I knew that was it. There was no way I could survive such a head-on collision.

My airbags inflated, the windshield shattered, the car’s engine was knocked out of its place, and headlamps were broken. My car was a write-off. Miraculously, I survived the grisly accident without a scratch. The driver who had hit me was completely drunk and fled the scene of the accident. The police eventually caught up with him.

Growing up, I had always imagined that at the moment of my death, I would have a couple of seconds to mumble a quick prayer of confession for my sins, pleading with the Lord to remember me in His kingdom, just as did the dying thief on the cross. The stark reality dawned on me: Many of us will never be afforded that luxury. Why? James reminds us: “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).* Our days “quickly pass, and we fly away” (Ps. 90:10).

Because of the brevity and unpredictability of life we are exhorted to live each day as if it is our last. This may sound like a cliché for some, I know. But the salient question remains: Is your life worth gambling with? What do you have to lose by giving up “fleeting pleasures of sin” (Heb. 11:25) for an “eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor. 4:17)?

As a child, the Super Mario video game gave me countless hours of pleasure, mostly because the game character had many “lives,” allowing me to correct my mistakes and attain higher levels with the goal of rescuing the prized princess in the end. But my heart pounded uncontrollably when I had only one more “life” remaining because I knew that that was my last chance before the dreaded words would appeared on my screen: Game Over.

In a small way, God reminded me that we are all living our last life, without any spares in our bag. Our time is quickly running out, and every single second we are alive is a gift from Him, granting us one more chance, ”he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Jesus’ soon return, or our premature death, whichever comes first, is a stark reality for each of us. Are we ready for either? Soon it will be Game Over for all of us. But having placed our lives in His hands, Game Over on earth will herald the promise of infinite “lives” in eternity with Jesus as the ultimate goal.

Let’s determine to run the race “in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Cor. 9:24).

*Bible texts in this article are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Frederick Kimani is a consultant physician born in Nairobi, Kenya, who is passionate about building bridges between God and young people through music.