Ariane Noelle Patterson, a student at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, collapsed in her religion class this past Tuesday afternoon. She was taken to a hospital, where she died. It was her 21^st birthday.

Ironically, Patterson had tweeted earlier that day, “Thank you God for another year of life.”

21 years of age seems awfully young for an apparently healthy person to die suddenly for no known reason. The Bible reminds us that we are not guaranteed even another day.

“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”—James 4:13-15.

Let’s appreciate the time we have been given by God, and let’s use it wisely.