In 1979, Air New Zealand was conducting commerical sight-seeing flights to the Antarctic. In November, the final flight of the season, flight 901 crashed in Antarctica in what is known as the “Mount Erebus disaster”, killing everyone onboard (257 people). There is a video here detailing what happened, including actual video and pictures shot by the passengers, minutes before the fatal crash.

A woman named Margaret McGowan famously demanded to be let off Air New Zealand Flight 901 before it took off from Christchurch, but was persuaded to reboard by the flight crew. Tragically, she perished with everyone else when the flight later crashed into Mount Erebus.

Death sometimes comes unexpectedly such as with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which killed as estimated 250,000 people. In 1970, a mountain moving at 210 mph buried an entire city in Peru in under four minutes, killing 20,000 people – see here.

Christians often tell me that they are “not yet ready to die.” That’s a problem that I deal with in my upcoming book. Until we are ready to die every day, we are not free to live to our full potential. As I write in the book,

“When we are ready to die, time no longer has a stranglehold on us. Life suddenly assumes an entirely different meaning. It is as though a spectacular flower has abruptly bloomed for the first time whereas previously we could only perceive it closed (known as “nyctinasty”). When we are ready to die we recognize something new that is awe-inspiring and spectacular. When we are set free from fear of death (Heb 2:15) and embrace death—whenever and however it may come—the albatross of death is finally removed from our neck and we are free to reach our full potential in Christ.”

Time moves us inexorably to the moment of our divinely-predetermined death (Ps 136:16). Unexpected death means that there is no time to prepare for death.  Any preparation for death must be done well beforehand; this is what is meant by being ready to die every day. When we are ready and willing to die every day, we experience true freedom to live.

If you follow Christ, be ready to die everyday.