Moments til midnight: If I only had a few hours to live

As I was reading this book, I was transported back in time about a half a century-give or take a few years. We all read the books in English class about important people, and then had to write an essay on what we would do if we found out we had only one day to live. Or what we would do if we were to be left sightless in 24 hours, or even what would we listen too if we were only going to have our hearing for another day or week.  Thinking back, I probably could have come up with something much more profound.

                Moments til Midnight: The Final Thoughts of a Wandering Pilgrim by Brent Crowe ((B&H, 2018) asks the reader to look at the last hours of the Apostle Paul, imprisoned because of his faith in Jesus, and his desire to share the good news of the Messiah throughout the known world.  But Paul’s essay on “what would you do with only hours to live?” is so much more complex than anything I thought of 50 years ago.

                Paul is well known for his comments on running the race set before him, and finishing well. And here we have some possible musings that the apostle might have made as he waited for his executioner to bring him from his cell one final time. Musings about the race that he had run, what he might have done differently, what he was proud of, what distressed him. And then Crowe adds snippets of information about the race that others are running, or have run.

                And reading about Paul’s essay on life, or the way that other people are running their races asks me to pull out the paper and pencil in order to rewrite my essay on what I would do if I knew I only had a few hours left to live.

                As a member of the publisher’s bloggers’ program, I received a copy of this book and was asked to write an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review.

                4/5