One thing that comes to mind is how we honor people when they die. I have told others, having cancer is like being able to attend your own funeral. All the love that has been poured out on me has been a wonderful blessing and I would not have felt it the same way if it didn’t come out until I died.
But I also think we as a culture approach death in a wrong way. We have picked up on the general public secular view that death is bad and should be avoided (usually at all costs). That’s the point to the phrase “its’ better than the alternative”. I said that, glibly I admit, to someone struggling through a rare and serious form of breast cancer a number of years back and her response was “is it?” which made me pause and think.
Of course, now that it’s a very real possibility for me, that the chemo or the cancer will kill me in the next 4 to 8 years, I am thinking about death a lot. And I find that I am not afraid of it. I have faith in God who promises me eternal life on the other side. There will be a time under the throne groaning for the suffering down here, but then there is bliss and wonderfulness. Who would pass that up?
I don’t think I’m a coward, really. I buck up and pray up and face most things pretty well. But I admit watching my Mom in the hospital in Roanoke and the weird signs of dementia (that luckily went away when she got out of the hospital) and the physical struggles all led me to admit to God that Id didn’t want to grow old. It seems He was listening and already knew how I felt and had plans to help me avoid doing just that. And I’m ok with that.
Death is sad, because we miss the person and we think of their potential and what could have been. But we grieve with hope, something the rest of the world can’t do. We (usually) know they have gone to a better place with no pain and no tears and no sin.
This is worthy of a separate post, but remember we are justified in an instance when we believe. Then we are sanctified over a lifetime while we struggle to obey and fight our sinful nature and learn to rely completely on God. Then we are glorified in an instant when we die and are immediately made perfect. That’s the moment I’m looking forward to. When I can lay down my weapons and stop feeling guilty for the fact that I still can’t get dependence down, and I can just enter His rest. Swing low sweet chariot, comin” for to carry me home!
