Take
an interest in your death,
For in your death your life has meaning,
Learn to look back from death’s door,
And in that make Christ your every leaning.
For in your death your life has meaning,
Learn to look back from death’s door,
And in that make Christ your every leaning.
***
Death is no imposter. Life
is no guarantor. Both death and life make broad and bold statements, and we,
the assuming, make very many mistakes because we think not enough about the
one, we take too much for granted of the other, and assume wrongly about both.
Death happens to others, we assume, until, that is, it takes us
by stealth, into the storm of grief – the loss of a loved one.
Life is there for us as we never imagine, as the Shamans of
Mexico would, that our deaths stalk us – they do. Yet, we imagine only half a
life without knowing the intimacy of our own death as it lurks only the absence
of breath or one foul swoop away.
It is wisdom to think appropriately about both death and life.
Then we have nothing to fear.
***
Knowing the concepts for death and life are intended to bless
us, here are five reasons we ought not to fear death so we can make the most of
life:
1.
For the saved, there is
only a better life to follow: We, the believers,
believe this by faith. There is no appropriate reason to doubt what our Holy
Scriptures say.
2.
Our deaths, like everyone
else’s death, are historical facts: Why would we not
plan our lives around what survives us? It is good to imagine that life will go
on. It’s appropriate that people will mourn us for a time, then to get on with
their lives. There is peace knowing life goes on without us.
3.
Looking back from death’s
door gives life its cogency of meaning: When
we consider that we cannot undo our lives – all our words and actions – and considering
this fact from the viewpoint of entering eternity – we live in ‘live’ time. There
are consequences. Everything is important. Our lives are not insignificant.
4.
Leaning on Christ gives us
power for no regrets: None of us will live
anything like a perfect life, but a life weighed by the portions of love, peace
and grace will make a life of fewer, if any, regrets.
5.
Given today is the day the
Lord has made, we can rejoice: We have this day. We have
no assurance of another. So we take the day and we continue to adjust it to the
hopes God has for us.
© 2014 S. J. Wickham.
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