Why Michael Madsen’s death gave me pause

The actor Michael Madsen died last week of an apparent cardiac arrest. His death struck me, but not for the reasons you might expect.

It was not Madsen’s body of work. While his filmography reportedly spans more than three hundred titles, I don’t remember seeing any of his movies. I had not realized that the Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen is his sister. Nor did I know that he was a published poet.

Here’s what I did learn when the news broke: at sixty-seven, he was the same age I am.

The benefits of contemplating death

It doesn’t seem long ago that nearly everyone whose death came to my attention was someone considerably older than me. Across forty years of pastoring, I don’t remember conducting funerals and memorial services for more than a handful of people my age or younger.

But now that tide has shifted. While the demographic comprising my age and older is growing as a percentage of the total, we are still only 15 percent of the American population. Said differently, 85 percent of the country is younger, and likely further from the end of their lives, than I am.

Psychologists say contemplating death brings certain benefits to life. It can renew our appreciation of the gift of life, enhance group affiliations, cause us to validate our worldview, and lead us to strengthen our relationships with those close to us.

But I think there is another factor as well, one worth considering at any age.

“One thing I do”

In his classic work The Struggle of the Soul, seminary professor Lewis Sherrill traces human development from birth to death. He notes that in later life, we enter a stage he calls “simplification.”

In his view, this involves “distinguishing the more important from the less important, getting rid of the less important or relegating it to the margin, and elevating the more important to the focus of feeling, thought, and action.”

I can attest personally to the wisdom of his observation, both biblically and personally.

As the apostle Paul prepared for his own martyrdom, he could testify, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). This was because he understood clearly what our “fight,” “race,” and “faith” should be.

He had told the Philippians years earlier, “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14). Now he reflected on the years spent pursuing this “goal” of fulfilling God’s call in his life and could report that they had been spent well.

My life text and this season of life

I have experienced a similar process of simplification over the years as well. Out of all that I could do to serve Jesus, I have come to understand more clearly what I can do best in this season and have sought to focus more fully on it.

My life text has long been Ephesians 4:12, “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.” I have sought to do this as a pastor, preacher, teacher, leader, and writer.

In recent years, however, my focus has narrowed to the critical cultural issues of our day, seeking to engage them with biblical truth that equips Christians to use their influence for Christ. I have also come to focus much more directly on writing as the primary means by which to fulfill this calling.

This is in part because digital technology makes writing more available to more people than ever before. God has given us an amazing team at Denison Ministries to help me use this platform in just this way.

And it is in part because we are facing such crucial and unprecedented issues in these days. Speaking biblical truth to cultural issues has never been more important or urgent.

How Steve Jobs began each day

I say all of that to say this: God has a specific purpose and mission for you in this season of your life as well. No matter your age, a process of “simplification” by which you focus on your best service to your king is a worthwhile endeavor.

Our secularized culture will not help in this regard. It measures you by popularity, performance, and possessions, while God measures your work by obedience to his will. You and I cannot begin to understand the eternal significance of present faithfulness, but we can choose that significance every day.

How?

To help answer this question, let’s close with some wisdom from perhaps an unlikely source. Steve Jobs was not a Christian. To the contrary, he rejected the Christian view of God due to the problem of evil and suffering and later became a proclaimed Buddhist.

Nonetheless, if we read what follows through the prism of the Spirit’s work in our lives, perhaps we will find some help as we seek to simplify our lives and focus our purpose. In Make Something Wonderful, a compilation of Steve Jobs’s interviews, speeches, and correspondence, we read this:

The most important thing I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices is to remember that I’ll be dead soon.

I know it sounds a bit dramatic, but it’s true. And when I remember this, I realize that all of the expectations and standards and restrictions of others and society mean nothing in the end.

I realize that I have nothing to lose by following my heart and intuition, even if I embarrass myself or fail in the eyes of others. Because I’ll be dead soon. And I realize that I don’t have forever to decide to find what my intuition tells me is waiting out there for me.

When I was seventeen, I read a quote that said something like

“If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”

And since I was seventeen, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself

“If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

When we remember what Michael Madsen’s death reminded me—that we are all mortal and one day closer to eternity than ever before—we find motivation to do what God would want us to do if this was our last day before meeting him.

What if today were that day for you?