Death

This word has such a negative effect on me, and most people I know. The people I know are all pretty much alive. All of us who are alive will one day face death. I’ve been rattled by death recently. In the community where I live and work two children have faced death prematurely. These kids died due to a battle with cancer. (That is a word I’ve learned to hate.) I’ve know people who are close to facing death and I’ve been inspired by their outlook and attitude. I’ve wondered what I’d do or how I’d behave if I knew that I would die soon.  Solomon was in a weird place when he penned this chapter in Ecclesiastes. Check this out…

  7 So go eat your food and enjoy it;

       drink your wine and be happy,

    because that is what God wants you to do.

 8 Put on nice clothes

       and make yourself look good.

 9 Enjoy life with the wife you love. Enjoy all the useless days of this useless life God has given you here on earth, because it is all you have. So enjoy the work you do here on earth.10 Whatever work you do, do your best, because you are going to the grave, where there is no working, no planning, no knowledge, and no wisdom. (Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 NCV)

 If I put a “newsflash” all over the place and announced that, “we are all going to die!”, I don’t think people would be alarmed. However, if I were bringing the news that we were all going to died TODAY, everyone would at least, listen more closely.

There are things about death that absolutely un-nerve me. I don’t know what I will feel. I don’t know if I will see light. I wonder if I will go straight to the presence of the Lord, or if I will go to a “holding place” for a moment. I wonder if I will recognize my family and friends who’ve died and gone before me.

After reading from Solomon’s “negative”, transitional comments about death. I went to the New Testament and realized that Jesus is offering hope. Jesus faced death and beat it down. He also told us, his followers, that we too will have eternal life. If I were to compare my life here on earth to the 9 months that my mother carried me in her womb, it would seem short. The entire 9 months that I was there, I was being prepared for life outside the womb. I can view this life as preparation for eternal life that is next. I don’t know how it is or exactly how it works or what I’ll be doing – but I can prepare.  Death becomes the gateway to a new chapter in my existence.  All I know is that Jesus will keep me in this life, through death and through eternity.  I’m choosing life with Him, because with Him there’s hope after death.

 Pressing On!

Dwayne