My wife and I are old. We are the people most at risk of death from the Corona virus. To top it off, two of my three sons died as young men. My father died when I was a teen. My wife’s father died when she was a teen.
Most people go through life with the mistaken belief that the really horrible things in life always happen to other people. My wife and I don’t have that luxury. So, as we watch the Corona virus spread, we are looking death in the eye. It is not my intention to go for sympathy here. It is not my intention to get morose. Because, the simple fact is that ALL of us are facing death. For my wife and me………it is just much more immediate…….more tangible.
If you are young, you still hold on to the myth of your immortality, your invulnerability. The world is your oyster. The pandemic is an invitation for you to explore these assumptions……….because you are just as mortal as I am.
So the question for today……..the question for you specifically…… is this:
“When you look at death…….your own death……..what do you see?”
Skip over the technical details. Will it be fast or slow? Will I see it coming? Will I suffer? These things are transient. Ultimately, these details are unimportant.
The real question is ………..”When I die…….what next?”
If you are a secular humanist or an atheist, then the honest answer is nothing. When you die, the complex biochemistry that runs your brain will stop. The lights will go out. Then nothing…… Black nothing.
If you practice one of the many forms of “designer religion”……..that is, a belief system that you have figured out on your own: “the goddess within”, “nature is my God”, “I’m going someplace beautiful!”, “I’m a good person”…….. then either you alone have figured out the greatest secret of the cosmos, or you are wrong. Realistically……you are wrong.
If you accept one of the 3 dominant faiths on the planet……. Judaism, Islam, or Christianity. Then you look forward to paradise…….provided that you meet some conditions.
I believe that there is enough solid eyewitness testimony of the resurrection of Jesus to prove that he is supernatural.
So when I die, what comes next for me is eternity…………spent with a guy who taught two fundamental rules: love God and love your neighbor.
In a word……when I die, things get better……..a whole lot better.
Does your belief system give you that hope?
“You believe in God believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
Jesus, NIV
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Jesus, NIV