On the day his dad retired, Eric McDaniel found himself standing at the helm of the family business - a multi-million-dollar commercial and residential security and fire alarm business.
Eric had been installing and maintaining alarm systems for Safe & Secure Custom Alarm Systems since before he graduated from high school.
Although his new position as CEO had taken him out of the day-to-day installs and operations, Eric always took time to personally visit each completed job site to meet the new customers.
Additionally, each year he blocked out the whole month between Thanksgiving and Christmas to personally visit with each of his established residential customers to make sure they were satisfied. He had known many of these people since he was a kid.
He took pride in the custom design of each system and loved seeing the peace of mind of his customers. Particularly the senior citizens.
To all those who knew him, Eric was the perfect son. A model citizen and morally upstanding member of the community he lived in.
He was a great husband and father. He was involved in his church and gave much to charity. And he was a caring boss and mentor to his employees.
As he liked to say, “I would give you my last nickel if you needed it”. Of course, he was far from being down to his last nickel.
He had no real visible vices - he was not even a social drinker. All those around him thought, “If anyone would be a candidate for heaven, it would be Eric.”
Secretly, that is what he hoped also, but Eric alone knew his shortcomings. He knew in his heart that he could never do enough to gain entry to the Celestial City. His constant thought was, “If everything that I do is not enough, then how can anyone gain access to that coveted place?”
Who knew? Maybe Heaven was empty.
Outwardly, he was a model human being. Inwardly, however, he was torn up. It got to the point where he couldn’t sleep well at night. In the daytime, he would daydream about how to be even better and then immerse himself in work to get his mind off of it.
But, he had no answers. Nothing gave him any peace.
What was he supposed to do?
Right after Thanksgiving, he began his annual visits. The customers had grown to love these times and to his family’s delight, prepared all sorts of holiday treats to send home with him.
He always saved the last visit, a couple of days before Christmas, for Mrs. Jarvis, an elderly widow still as spry as a cat.
Eric had known Mrs. Jarvis since before he began working for his dad after school. She was different, but he couldn’t put his finger on just what it was. He had grown to love her and enjoy his visits. And, she always sent him home with a feast of Christmas goodies for his family.
This year turned out to be vastly different than what he had anticipated.
When he knocked on the door, Mrs. Jarvis did not come to greet him. Instead, she spoke through the door camera and gave him the code to disarm and unlock the door.
For weeks now since her funeral, Eric had mulled over that day. The last visit he would ever make to her house. That day, everything had eternally changed for him.
She had been sitting in her favorite chair in the den and instructed him to sit down on the sofa just to her right.
He was puzzled when he came in and noticed that her house was not filled with the aromas of freshly baked goods. He saw that the refreshments she had already laid out were from the local bakery. That had never happened before.
On the table between them, everything looked the same as it had every year since he could remember. Her Bible, her reading glasses, and a small devotional book, Streams in the Desert.
But when he looked at her, he knew. She was staring at him with the most compassionate, yet sad expression he had ever seen.
“Eric, I am dying.” She just came right out and said it upfront. “I turned ninety-four this year and have had an amazingly healthy life. When my husband, Luke passed, my goodness, it seems an eternity ago now, my heart was so broken, I just knew I would go soon after.
“But God had a different plan for my life. He still had work for me to do here. And I grew to love serving Him through serving in our community. But apparently, it’s done now.”
Eric was speechless. This saintly lady had been a friend to him and his family for decades it seemed. She was never “pushy” in her life of faith, but lived it out confidently in everything she did.
As a matter of fact, she was probably the most caring person he had ever known. When there was a need in their small community, she was there, doing and giving what she could.
Always with a kind word, she was loved by everyone.
How much she gave of her time and her money was known only to her. He didn’t think she was very wealthy, but she was always volunteering to help with projects here and there and many times gave a financial helping hand to those who needed it.
“Wha …What?” was all he managed to say.
“Several months ago, I began tiring so easily, which was not like me. When I went to see Dr. Haynes, he did the usual blood work, but this time he also added a stress test. I failed miserably.
“That’s when he told me of his suspicion that my heart was failing.”
“Isn’t there something that can be done”, Eric asked.
“Not that would add any meaningful time to my life. I’m ninety-four, Eric. I’m tired. I am so ready to be with my Savior and to see Luke again.”
“You sound so certain. Don’t you ever doubt whether you have done everything you can to be accepted? How do you know that you will see Mr. Jarvis again?”
What she said next took him by surprise.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to talk about today, Eric. Ever since I’ve known you, you have been busy with providing for your family, running your business, and helping out in the community. And you’ve done quite well.
“You and I have worked on many projects together, so I know the sort of effort you put into everything. You want things to be perfect in every way.
“But, I’ve noticed something else about you. Eric, please forgive me for being so direct, but I don’t have much time left on this earth and this is something I’ve wanted to talk to you about for a long time. I just didn’t know exactly how without offending you.
“Today, however, will no doubt be the last time we have together like this.
“Eric, it is time to activate your spiritual alarm, which is something God has installed in all of us. But most just tune it out to the point that when it sounds, they don’t even bother to respond.
“When you asked the question about how I could be so certain, I sensed God’s leading in this conversation.”
Even though he went to church “religiously”, Eric had never experienced "God’s leading” in anything. He really didn’t know what she referring to.
He waited.
“I’ve known you since you were probably six or seven years old when you started accompanying your father on these annual customer visits.
“Lucasville is a small town. One notices things.
“Here’s something I have noticed, Eric. While you have always tried to do things right and be a good citizen, I have come to realize that you are doing it for gain, whether personal or for your business. For what? To be perfect enough to be accepted by God into heaven? That is the impression I get about you, Eric.”
He started to speak, but she held up her hand.
“Let me finish, please.
“Your comment when I told you that I was dying, confirmed what I have thought for a long time. And that is that you do everything you do in hopes of being good enough to gain entry into heaven. Well, I’m going to burst your bubble, Eric.
“You can never be perfect enough. No one can.”
Eric was stunned and completely silent. He was trying to form a rebuttal in his mind, but in his heart, he knew she was correct.
Finally, with a hint of uncertainty, he asked, “What are we supposed to do, then? What does God want from us?”
She thought for a moment before she answered.
“Yes, he wants us to do our best and serve others. But not to make us good enough to gain entry into heaven.”
“I don’t understand”, he said.
“Let me tell you a story. It’s actually found in the Bible in Matthew Chapter 19.
“A young nobleman approached Jesus and asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Surely he was hoping that Jesus would confirm all the good things he had been doing up to that point.
“Because Jesus already knew what the man was thinking, he gave the standard answer he was looking for.”
You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour your father and your mother.
“The young nobleman answered just as Jesus knew he would, ‘I have done all those things from my youth’.”
“Yes”, thought Eric. That described his life exactly.
“Imagine the young nobleman’s surprise when Jesus answered that there was something missing.”
Yet you lack one thing: If you will be perfect, sell all that you have, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: then come, follow me.
“The young nobleman was distraught and went away sorrowful because everything he did and owned was a testament to how good he was, which should qualify him for entry into heaven.”
When Eric heard this, he too was distraught. Jesus could be sitting here right now describing his own life in the exact same way.
“Well then, Heaven must be an empty, lonely place”, Eric voiced what he had been thinking for some time now.
“To the contrary”, Mrs. Jarvis said. “Heaven is filled with multitudes of joyful people and adding more every day.”
“But how?”
“Let me share just one more story with you, Eric.”
She opened her Bible and turned to the book of Acts.
“Chapter sixteen gives the account of the Apostle Paul and his companion, Silas being cast into jail in the city of Philippi. Not only that but to make sure they didn’t escape, their feet were also shackled.
“The story says that Paul and Silas sang songs and praised God for their circumstances. At midnight, God sent a great earthquake that shook the very foundations of the jail and opened all the cell doors.
“The Bible says that even their leg shackles were loosened. They could actually walk out of the jail if they wanted to, but they didn’t.”
“I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t they flee? I know I would have.”, Eric said.
“That’s because we haven’t gotten to the most important part of the story”, she said. “I want you to read what happened next”. She handed him her Bible and indicated he should read Acts 16: 27-30.
He began:
And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
“The question the jailer asked was typical of what all men ask. Or should ask, I might add. It is a natural thing to assume that we must do something in order to be saved and acceptable to a holy God.”
“That’s what I don’t understand”, said Eric. “How, then?”
Mrs. Jarvis smiled at him with the most compassionate eyes. He could almost feel her concern.
“And now we come to the most important part of this miracle, Eric”, she said. “Read the very next sentence.”
He looked and read, “And they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.’”
He waited on the punch line, “OK, then what?”
“That’s it”, she replied. “Salvation is by faith, alone. Because we are not holy, there is nothing we could ever do to please God. He says we must believe, or trust ‘on the Lord Jesus Christ’, which refers to His work, not ours. He did what we could not do.
“Look at what the Apostle Paul wrote to a doubting church in I Corinth. Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.”
“Eric read the passage …
‘Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.’
The only one who could have done that is God himself, Eric. Our only response is to believe that His work applies to us. On our behalf. That’s it.
“Romans Chapter Four and verse five says,
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
“In the same letter to the Romans, Paul states that eternal life is a gift. Christmas is two days from now. No doubt, you have many gifts to give your wife and children. Do you expect them to pay you for those gifts?”
“No way”, Eric said.
“Well then, why would you think that God, who has purchased eternal life to give to anyone who will receive it, including you, would expect you to pay for it?”
Eric was stunned. Finally, he said, “If God has bought salvation for us all, why do we not all know we have eternal life?”
“That is a good question, Eric. Now, ask yourself this question, ‘Does something become a gift when you purchase and offer it to someone, or when they actually accept it?”
“Well, I suppose that technically, it isn’t really a gift until the person it is intended for accepts it. Up until that point, it’s just intended to be a gift, but it is really still a purchase.”
“God is not a mean taskmaster who requires us to do more and more to try and please him to let us in to heaven, which he knows we could never do”, Mrs. Jarvis replied.
“Just like you love seeing your children’s joy and happiness when they receive the gifts you bought them, God also delights in seeing the joy his children express when they receive his gift of salvation.
“Which, I might add, he purchased through the blood of his own son, who alone could become a sacrifice which could permanently pay for our sin.
“The entire letter to the Hebrew Christians is all about the superiority of Christ to nature, to heavenly beings, and to all other sacrifices. Read your Bible, Eric. It’s all there.”
As she spoke, the alarm in his heart, which he could barely hear before, became louder and louder until it drowned everything else out.
Eric knew that he must respond.
As if she was reading his mind, Mrs. Jarvis interrupted his thoughts. “Are you ready, Eric, to respond to the Spiritual alarm that is sounding loudly in your heart?”
He wondered how she knew, but that was the least of his concerns now.
“Yes ma’am”, he replied.
He didn’t wait for her to speak again.
“God, I know now that there is nothing that I could ever do to justify myself before you, a holy and pure God.
“I will accept the gift of eternal life offered through Jesus. Everything I do from here on out will be to glorify you and praise you for what you have done for me, not to try and gain favorable status to be admitted into your presence.”
He looked at Mrs. Jarvis with tears in his eyes, but a smile of pure joy on his face.
He said, “And God, thank you so much for Mrs. Jarvis. Thank you for leading her to talk to me about the simplicity of salvation. God, help me to be like her and be the channel of your love for others. To activate their spiritual alarm system, not just their earthly one.”
When he looked at her again, tears flowed quite freely down her cheeks.
“Oh, Eric, I’m so overjoyed for you. Serve God by serving others all the days of your life. He will bless through the good times and bad.”
“Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen”, she added.
“Mrs. Jarvis, I don’t even know what to say”, Eric said.
“Why, you don’t need to say anything”, she said. “Go to your family now and tell them what has happened today. Then be faithful until your dying breath.”
She stood slowly and Eric gave her the biggest hug she had received since her husband passed.
Finally, she said, “Eric, I doubt that you will see me on this side of eternity again. Now I have two requests. First, since I have no children of my own, I have named you executor of my estate. I hope you will accept that duty.
“Secondly, because today turned out the way I hoped it would, I would like you to give a small sermon, really a testimony, at my funeral.
“I want you to call it ‘Sounding the Final Alarm’. Let folks know what happened to you today and tell them not to ignore the alarm that may be sounding in their heart.
“It could be their last. One day it will be too late to respond.”
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Wow, so good, Cork! We always think we have time to have these conversations…until we don’t!
Cork, this was a very moving and impassioned call to action. I appreciate your dedication to the writing of this. Having come to God and His Son in my childhood and falling away due to grief in my youth, I wandered as a Prodigal for 35 years. It is only the MERCY of God that called and called and called me back to Him. I am grateful beyond words and will never wander again. Eternity with God and His Son is worth all the troubles of the world. Thank you for writing this piece! Wendy