Quite a title isn’t it. It’s not mine and neither is the idea. My friend Crystal Miller pointed out 10 Things You Should Do Before Going to Heaven in her blog, Chat N’ Chew Cafe. A couple of the suggestions are select a life verse and refuse to act your age. I think I’ve got those two down. The rest are up in the air.

As a teenager my life verse was I Timothy 4:12: “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:12). I needed the constant encouragment and challenge that it was okay — regardless of my age — to set a standard for others. Not always easy with the pressure to follow the crowd, but I loved having that verse in my hip pocket to pull out.

Then I turned twenty-five. Then thirty. And I decided, ya know, I just might need a new life verse. Now mind you I struggle to remember I’m not 16 sometimes. Isn’t it funny how our minds get stuck with the vision of us in one age? Then I’ll see my kids or nieces and nephews and think “Ack! They cannot be that old, because it means I’m older, too!”

Anyway, my new life verse is found in Joshua 1:6-8: “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

What a challenge! If I could truly live my life as a strong and courageous person who finds strenth in obeying God’s law, my life would have such a sure foundation. And the lawyer in me likes the reminder there is a law that is supreme above the sometimes fickle law of man. Don’t ask me about that right now — I’m a touch jaded after a hearing this morning. But God’s law is always the same; it never changes. It is ultimately fair and full of justice. But the good news mercy overshadows it. That is something worth meditating on until I reach heaven.