My childhood hero was Steve Irwin. I loved him, everything about him. His attitude, his calling, his accent. When he died September 4, 2006, Labor Day, I was 8 years old, and I cried for a person’s death for the first time.
I never had anyone I was close to in my life (family or friends) die until I was in my 20’s. The first person that was close to me that passed away was my best friend Dominic who drank himself to death 3 days before his 30th birthday. That was a tough one, and I feel bad that I didn’t tell him more about Jesus… he was a buddhist. But he taught me alot about life, what not to do, who to avoid. A lot of creative slogans and ideas, and forced me to watch the Matrix with him. It just so happened, he died on the day I was baptized into water. September 6, 2020.
Following Dom’s death, it seemed like a slurry of death followed – my grandma, my grandpa, then Corona hit and my uncle died, then other people I knew through being active in the city as a traveling vendor.
I was 8 years old when my mom told me, “Mark, I have to tell you something. It’s sad. Sit down for this.” She knew I loved the Crocodile Hunter, and always imitated him, saying “Crikey! That’s a big bloke there!” In the best Australian accent I could summon up.
The Proverbs say, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” (Ecclesiastes 7:4 KJV)
Another translation to this is, “A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time.” (Ecclesiastes 7:4 NLT)
No one can outrun death. They may be able to delay their death, to live to fight another day, but at the end, it’s all the same. Every man has his time appointed to die. There’s no escaping this. Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
This is why you should live like you were dying, as Tim McGraw sang. So whatever your dream is – whatever vision God has placed in your heart – first off, believe that it is possible and that you can do it. Ask God to help you with it (this helps SO MUCH! WAY more than we could imagine!), write it down, and then do it. Ask God for bravery/courage, and notice that you not going towards your goal is because of some manifested fear within your life/mind. To put it another way, you’re not even tryingto work on your goals because you’re afraid it won’t pay off, you’re not good enough, what will people say, if you’re good at it. Tune all of that out. Notice that all F.E.A.R. is just False Evidence Appearing Real.
The manifestaiton of being fearful and thus not doing something is because deep down, maybe subconsciously, you believe a lie and thus live the lie out. This is how the devil can get to us, control us, use us as a puppet, as we go from one distraction to the next. Or, as I always say, clever distractions can be the most deceptive, because we know we should be doing X, but instead we convince ourselve to be doing an easier Y that we assume would be helping us with X, and in this way we never get to X but deceive ourselves so subtly by thinking Y will help to get to X, when really we’re just being cowards, driven by fear. The fear of something is always worse than the actual doing of it. Just do it, in Jesus’ name (not in the name of the greek goddess Nike, lol). This is how the devil enters in through our mind and controls our actions. Especially in Christians – the devil is below our feet, but if we believe any one of his lies, than really he’s in us and controlling us like a puppet. This could be through distractions, fears, seemingly ‘better’ opportunities, other people’s opinions, and laziness.
Anyway, on every labor day, whenever I realize that it’s ‘today’, I realize that Steve Irwin, my childhood hero, died on this day, many years ago. I think about the awesome things he did, the way he motivated several generations of people and laid seeds for what’s possible in people’s minds. He trailblazed, and lived life loudly and flamboyantly. He was a man of power, who captured the attention ofthe masses with his brave and courageous antics. I don’t know about his relationship with God, perhaps it’s not my job to judge that AT ALL, but instead it’s to be left to God, but here’s someone that lived every day as if it was his last. For, when the last day finally came, he died doing what he loved, constantly pursuing more in the realm of ecology and animal education. He died at the age of 44. Imagine how he would’ve shaped the world of film, TV, animal education, etc if he was still alive. He’d be a powerful man, a television figure, a famous celebrity! I imagine he’d still be educating the world to this day!
I loved Steve Irwin. I still do. May he be a reminder to us all that life is short. Amidst going for our destiny or just living ordinary life, we can choose – what do we want? How are we going to do it? Why do we want it? Is it what God wants? Only to take action, to seek to aim life with no regrets, to be intentional, loving, fulfilling, and always willing to step out of our way to help a person in need. Most of all, to go for the vision that God has shown us – the purpose he has placed in our hearts. May he fulfill our purposes for us all, in Jesus’ name.
A wise young man once told me, “I know you don’t get this right now, but everything you need is within the Kingdom of God.” It didn’t make sense to me, but now I’m seeing – everything done, if it’s not done in Christ, then it’s practically worthless in eternity. If it’s not in Christ, it will be burned up. The true riches are in Christ, the rest will be burned up.
“Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15 NLT)
I want all of my work to have true and eternal, lasting value. I want to hit the double wammy – be effective and productive on earth, for gain and glory to God on earth and grow my inheritance in heaven. To me, this is walking with Christ.
May we each run the race before us with endurance, perseverance, with Christ, the author and finisher of our faith and salvation (Hebrews 12:2).
MARK SOTOMAYOR 