Her 'most fervent wish'

Last night, news broke that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed away.

While this kind of news spreads quickly, and immediately inserts itself into the national discussion, Congressional agenda, and election, it's worth pausing to first reflect on one of the last things she said.

NPR reported, “Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: ‘My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.’”

Even if the ideological and political roles were completely reversed, this is one of the saddest final statements one could make.

When Awana co-founder Art Rorheim passed away, Moody Radio played a recording of an interview with him in which he told the story of his brother passing away many years before when he was a child. As his brother was dying, he was utterly concerned, distraught, and weeping about his brother: “Art's not saved! Art's not saved!” It tore Art up and urgently pushed him to confront his eternal destiny. He did put his trust in Jesus as his Savior, and he passed along that urgency for evangelism to many others.

The Apostle Paul, “a Hebrew of the Hebrews,” who had “advanced in Judaism” and had been “exceedingly zealous for the traditions” of his fathers, had “great sorry and continual grief” in his heart about the eternal destiny of his brethren, his “countrymen according to the flesh.” His heart's desire and prayer to God was “that they may be saved.”

The most urgent thing in this life is not law, government, country, legacies, successors, or being remembered.

The most urgent thing in this life is to be ready for the next.

We need to pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2). In the context of evangelism, this instruction is given from “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4).

We don't just pray for their salvation so that “will naturally lead to better leadership,” but first so that they will be saved from the wrath of God. The Gospel is for the Jew first and also for everyone else.

Yes, public policy also affects our ability to evangelize, and it is good to make efforts to ensure government confirms to its appropriate roles, and still, the ultimate reason for all public policy, foreign and domestic, is to ensure freedom (not coercion) for believers to tell others the Good News about Jesus, so that they can freely decide if they will trust in Him as their Savior.

If you haven't already, there is nothing more urgent than trusting in Jesus as your Savior, right now.

If you have, tell others about Him. Use this time of national conversation brought on by death to steer others toward eternal things and questions about their eternal destiny.