When All She Wrote Means You Are Finished!

When All She Wrote Means You Are FinishedDr. Vince Hefner, PastorFirst Baptist ChurchCherryville, North CarolinaWhen I was growing up my family used colorful metaphors and mountain sayings to describe certain feelings and events. Since I have a vivid imagination I would try to visualize what my family was talking about. Take for instance the story of a person who finds a bat in the bedroom. Someone in the mountains might say, "They came out of that bedroom faster than a Striped Ant." As a child, I was always more impressed with the description of person reacting to the event than the event itself. I would ask myself, "What is a 'striped ant' and what makes it faster than an ant without stripes?" I would look and look for an ant sporting a stripe down its side, but I never found one. I guess they were too fast for me!I remember people using the term "Hogan's goat" to describe a number of events. I heard people say that so and so was "madder than Hogan's goat," or "faster than Hogan's goat," or "uglier than Hogan's goat." I always wondered who Hogan was, and how his goat could be so versatile. I didn't know who was more famous, Hogan or his goat, because the two were always mentioned together. If you happen to know where Hogan and his goat live, give me a call. I would like to meet him and his goat!It seemed that when my family members were aggravated over something, the really good sayings would come forth. On more than one occasion I have heard the saying, "I'm gonna whip you like a rented mule!" As I child I would try to visualize going to a farmer and renting his mule, and then whipping it. I always wondered why a person would rent a mule and then whip it. Why not rent a cow, or a horse, or even a pig? Maybe I had too much time on my hands when I was kid because I spent many hours trying to figure out where these sayings originated.However, there was one saying that was designated for me while I was growing up. Believe it or not, I was always in trouble and had the bad habit of doing dangerous things. I would climb on top of our house and then jump off. I saw people on TV doing it, so I figured I could do it. I would build bicycle ramps in the yard and then ride my bike over them to see how far I could travel in the air. I would go out into the woods to catch snakes and try to make pets out of them. As a matter of fact, I would do just about any dumb thing that entered my mind. When my dad would see me doing something dumb, he would say, "Son, you're gonna (insert whatever I was doing) one time too many, and that will be "All she wrote!" "All she wrote?" Who was he talking about? I didn't know anybody was watching me to record all my actions, much less a girl, and was she pretty? I finally realized what my dad meant by his saying. One day I was going to die, and then all my actions would come to an end. It was a morbid thought, but an accurate one. This has made me reconsider my actions since and realize that life is brief, and if I kept defying death, one day I would push my luck too far. I knew death was a part of life, but I didn't want to speed things up, so I settled down, for the most part.We read in 2 Samuel 14:14, "We will all die some day. We're like water spilled on the ground; no one can gather it back. But God doesn't take away life. Instead, he plans ways that those who have been sent away will not have to stay away from Him!" I am so glad that Jesus Christ is the way for mankind to be brought to God the Father. When we trust in Jesus we can know for certain that Heaven is our eternal home. Take time today and settle this important issue in your life. Remember, don't give in to sin. Think about it!