This week I sat at the bedside of a dear friend who’s dying. She was present with us, yet far away in her mind and heart. The few phrases she managed to speak were about Jesus. How He is with her in her sleep. How she and Jesus have had precious conversations lately. How Jesus wants His message to keep going out.

Even when reminded that her friends and family are surrounding her during these final hours, all she could talk about – focus on – was Jesus. She’s seeing and sensing Jesus continuously as she transitions from this life to eternity with Abba (her favorite name for her ever-present Father).

She’s dying as she lived – nurturing and cherishing a close, intimate, and authentic relationship with a real Jesus, her Savior, friend, and constant companion. The same Jesus who walked with her through countless dark seasons of life. The Lord who gave her sweet prayer language and moved her heart until breaking for the lost. The Redeemer who constantly rescued her from the evil one. The Savior who delivered her from the snares of sin and now delivers her from the pain and brokenness of her own body and this fallen world.

In the end, there was Jesus. For her, nothing else mattered.

We’re presented with so many choices in this life that really come down to two: will I pursue myself, or will I pursue Jesus? Will I seek His Kingdom or my own?

This world encourages us to seek ourselves– our happiness, our success, our achievements, our pleasures, our desires. To cram into this short life all the accolades, experiences, and luxuries we possibly can before it’s too late.

Yet in the end, there’s only Jesus. And He’s enough.

So which would I rather pursue now? Do I want to leave this life with tick marks next to an ever-changing list of things that pass away? Or do I want to pursue a transformative, dynamic, growing, and intimate relationship with Jesus that will last for eternity?

My friend chose to pursue Jesus in this life, and she’s dying with Him too. As she takes her last breath and closes her eyes in sleep one last time, Jesus will carry her home as He carried her in this life – gently, mercifully, lovingly, and graciously.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
O what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blessed
Watching and waiting, looking above
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long.