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Friday, October 02, 2009Dying Young And Living Too Long
A woman in her mid-thirties had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table, she had a near death experience. Seeing God, she asked, "Is my time up?"
God said, "No, you have another 43 years, two months, eight days, 12 hours, eight seconds and five nanoseconds to live." (Talk about precision!)
Upon recovery, the woman went to the bank to cash out the one hundred thousand dollar cheque she got from her critical illness insurance and went back to the hospital to have a facelift, liposuction and tummy tuck. Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well look even nicer. After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was hit by an ambulance and was killed instantly.
Arriving in front of God, with a load of bitterness in her heart, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 43 years? Why didn't you pull me out of the path of that ambulance?"
God replied, "Opps, I didn't recognize you."
Life never works out exactly as planned. You may be able to plan your dreams and goals in life – the house, the car, the career, the vacation and so on. But then, when the unexpected happens like a sudden change of health or premature death, do you have a Plan B?
Having insurance plays an important role when plans don't play out as expected.
If you will ask me why God allows these unexpected events happen in our lives, I have no answer for that. As far as I know, everything happens for a reason.
I wonder what the status of the woman before she had a heart attack. The story says that she is in her mid-thirties. So, she was probably healthy, taking daily exercise, always having fun while working her way up in the corporate ladder before she experienced a heart attack. If you think I'm speculating too much, based on statistics, every 7 minutes in Canada, someone dies from heart disease or stroke.*
Reference :
* - Statistics Canada Mortality Summary List of Causes 2005.
Death of a loved one is probably the most emotionally devastating things that can happen to anyone, especially if the cause is unexpected. This is why no one is ever too young to get a life insurance, because "you'll never know when you need it."
(By the way, I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to anyone who wants to help our fellow "kababayans" in the Philippines who were affected by typhoon Ondoy. Although I'm not directly affiliated with ABS-CBN, they are one of the reliable channels that you can use to send some help. You can also find several channels where you can send your donations by going to Google and type – "Tropical Storm Ondoy: How you can help." I myself have some very close friends who were directly affected by the storm. I will be sending my assistance through my community.)
Never underestimate the importance of a Plan B.
If a premature death would cause financial hardship to a family member, consider having one.
Many people procrastinate in getting one. The reason – I'm too busy or I don't have time. Guess what, it may be too late to get one when you need it most, or worst, no insurance company wants to give you insurance anymore because you are no longer insurable. This happens a lot.
Scripture says, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:13-14)
You cannot avoid death. Insurance can help to ensure that your loved ones are protected financially and can maintain their standard of living in the event of a sudden death.
Right now, I hope you have no more reasons not to get one, today.
Let's now move on to the next.
Now that you have hedged yourself with life insurance, what if God blessed you to live long – I mean, up to age 100? Can you use some of the money you paid in your insurance? The answer is a resounding yes!
Have you ever heard of Universal Life (UL) Insurance?
A properly funded and maintained UL insurance can be a great way to provide extra income during retirement. But remember, this is a long-term strategy. Your insurance should already been long paid off.
Generally, your money in a UL insurance is invested by the insurance company based on your own choice of funds at your own risk tolerance level. Overfunding a UL insurance gives you full control on where and how your money is invested. The cash value inside your UL plan grows tax deferred until withdrawn.
To minimize tax hits, you can leverage the funds inside the UL plan. Many banks will give loans up to 75% of the policy's cash value, using the money inside your policy as collateral. You pay interest on the loan but continue to defer taxes. Upon death, the bank receives a portion of the death benefit to pay back your loan and the rest goes to your beneficiary.
This is a very good concept. I personally call this RIP. Not Rest In Peace but rather Retire with your Insurance Policy. The acronym stands for itself - a deadly concept that gives you peace during retirement.
There are more available techniques and strategies out there so you could retire in style. This is only one of them.
Living long is one of God's greatest gifts to a human being.
If you are given this gift, you have to be sure that you are able to enjoy your last years. When I say enjoy, you are happy and love is all around you. If you ask me, I prefer dying young than living long without love in my heart.
Without love means, you are alone, no one cares for you and you are bitter for the rest of your life.
Bitter. Let's talk about this for a bit.
Have you read the story about the "Prodigal Son?" (Luke 15:25-32)
I'm not going to focus on the prodigal son or the father. I'm going to talk about the older brother as narrated at this particular verse in the scripture – Luke 15:28 – "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him."
Who was the older brother? On the outside he was a model son, a good follower and hard working. On the inside, he was sour, overcome by jealousy, consumed by anger and blinded by bitterness.
Bitterness can cause a person to burn a house down to kill a rat.
So if you carry bitterness in your old age, this can be your prison for the rest of your life. Victims of this prison are chained in the walls.
They feel betrayed and abused.
They grumble, angry at others who got what they didn't.
They feel the world is against them.
They place the pictures of their enemies in the dart board, "bulls-eye."
They boast of following the rules, playing fair and tell everyone that they are better than anyone else.
They whine when no one listens to them or ignore them or nobody remembers their "good works."
They feel that no one cares for them.
Grumbly, resentful, accusing, boastful, angry, arrogant, whinny – put them all together in one word – Bitter.
You can choose to be like Cain (Genesis 4:6-7), to chain yourself to your hurt or you can choose to be like Job (Job 40:4-5), to put away your hurts by humbling yourself before they become hate.
Having a good relationship with our Father in heaven is the secret to have a beautiful life. This relationship is nourished via constant communication with the Father through prayer.
Whenever you experience bitterness in your life, you can easily deal with it because you are constantly reminded, especially when praying, of what you have; which is more than important than anything else – that is your relationship with God.
No one can take that away from you.
In the story of the older brother, the father went out and pleaded with him. He became bitter because he focused on what he did not have and forgot what he did have – a loving Father who has his eyes on him. Although at that moment, his father's eyes shift a bit to the prodigal son, he was not contented to share it with his brother, and boy, did he miss the party!
How blessed are we when we rise above our bitterness.
May God bless you a long life!
God is the greatest!
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