Many years ago when I entered the life insurance industry, companies would use the following story to try to get agents to sell life insurance to friends and family. Here is a shortened version.

He Was a Friend of Mine

He was a friend of mine and I never asked him to buy Life Insurance because I didn’t want him to think I was the kind of person who would use friendship for personal gain.

Then the salesman’s friend got married, had children and bought a house. Each life event was an opportunity to purchase life insurance but the salesman never asked his friend.

The salesman goes on to say, “He was a friend of mine and when his car missed the curve in the storm last night, I was the first one his widow called.”

“The day after tomorrow, I’ll be standing beside my friend’s grave, and I’ll still be trying to rationalize my failure ever to talk to him about Life Insurance. I’ll be thinking too, even more bitterly than I am now, about the staggering price his family paid for my false pride and foolish sensitivity.”

“But, most of all, I’ll be wondering when the time comes to pay my last respects, whether, if he could speak, he would say of me as I do of him, “He was a friend of mine.”

What if instead of the salesman it was you paying your last respects and you are left wondering if your friend (or family member) made the right choice. Did they accept Christ as their Savior? Are they in Heaven or in Hell? Just like the salesman I think that false pride and foolish sensitivity get in the way of us sharing our faith.

What if instead of life insurance we give people “New Life” insurance. Insurance that guarantees peace, joy and eternal life.
If you are not doing so, share your faith journey with those you love. I have learned that there may never be a tomorrow to share my faith; I try to take advantage of every opportunity.

Many “friends” I meet only for a minute and will never see them again until we get to Heaven. When I see them I will be happy they took out “New Life” insurance because there is nothing I would enjoy more than spending eternity in paradise with a friend of mine.

• he was a friend of mine