Thoughts on Dying Part I

With the tragedy unfolding in Haiti, anyone who follows the news has to be thinking about death and dying. In addition, we have just experienced the loss of a very dear uncle this week, bringing the proximity of eternity into personal focus for us.

My thoughts on the matter:
Many people want to believe that at death, we merely cease to exist--move into a non-condition; the end is the end; eternal sleep; nothing more. Or, some want to believe that our soul will be embodied in another creature and the next life will be spent living out the consequences of the former life. (There are many variations on this theme). Others want to think that if their good deeds weigh more than their bad deeds, then a loving God will surely let them live forever in a pleasant place when they die.

Unfortunately, most of the time, these thoughts are completely self-generated and self-centered. We either deny that death is a significant ending to what we experience as life, or we attempt to create our own version of a heaven, or a paradise, where all the troubles of this life go away and we can live the way we want to live and be forever happy and comfortable. I'm sure there are many other versions of life (or non-life) after death, but these are the ones I most often encounter.

Well, all these ideas might be credible if we, as humans, were completely able to determine our own destiny. Some might say that "Fate" or "Chance" is the determiner of our lives, but I'm more inclined to accept the traditional belief that the Bible has the answers to these deep questions about life and death--not because I'm a traditionalist, but because those answers, when compared to all the others, make the most sense.

Have you read the Bible at all? and thought about the ideas there about death? I'd encourage you to begin reading in the book of John--the gospel (good news). Read with an open mind, set aside your personal opinions for awhile, and just read. I'd like to write about this subject even more next time. But for now, this must suffice.