I’ve been mulling over a Daily Bread devotional that was very thought-provoking. It spoke volumes to me in several ways, and not just because I’m on the other side of 50 rolling downhill, even faster than usual these days it seems (Is it really the first day of 2013?)! The devotional offered a look at death from something other than the doomsday drama that has surrounded much of recent months. After surviving the end of the world a couple of times now due to miscalculations, or something like that, (was it May 21st, or 26th; no, Oct 21st)? Then the end of the world as the Mayan calendar expired (perhaps they planned on continuing at a later time and just never got around to it, who knows?). Not to mention all the talk about ‘wars and rumors of wars’ (which have been from the beginning of time practically) and all the terrible natural disasters and ‘acts of God’ (as they’re called by insurance companies that don’t cover the losses).
Depressed yet? Well, don’t be. The main idea of The Power of Terminal Thinking (David McCasland, ODB 12/31/12) was not to encourage morbid or unhealthy thoughts of dying, but rather to present the idea that a proper understanding of death and its certainty should provide a ‘dynamic approach to living’. It can, and it should.
Still not excited? I must admit I had all but forgotten the initial impact, especially of the Scripture cited with the devotional, until today:
“Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am…Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor” Psalm 39:4-5.
Today I talked with my mom on the phone and learned of the death of one that at one time was a close friend of my brother’s. They grew up together and had kept in touch until recent years. This man in his late 40’s went to Florida “on vacation” over Christmas, and jumped out of a thirteen-story hotel window.
That news shook me, as has the news of other tragic deaths, some even closer to home than this one. But this one bothered me in a different, less emotional way. It was just sobering. Maybe because while I was on the phone, the television was blaring about the fiscal cliff we had just apparently gone over. At one time at least, finances and financial status had meant a great deal to this fellow, and my brother too for that matter. I don’t know if that had anything to do with his decision to end his life, especially in this awful way, but I couldn’t help but think as I listened to the news commentator that we may likely hear of much of this during this next year. I remember hearing stories from my grandfather about ‘people jumping out of windows’ after the 1929 Stock Market crash and the days of depression that followed. His thought was that people just lost all hope of ever recovering. My thought? It is perfectly understandable, though terribly regretful, if their only hope of a continued existence was in their financial holdings.
Yes, we are frail and but a vapor, and it does us good to be reminded. But only if it turns our thought to the love of our God that created us and desires to sustain us as we place our trust and hope in Him.
You have taken hold of my right hand.
With Your counsel You will guide me and afterward receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my
portion forever.
Psalms 73: 24-26
Thoughts of death and dying are undeniably troubling, and they should be to an appropriate degree. But the right view of death known to the believer is to give us the healthy and abundant perspective of life God wants us to have.
He wants us to truly live.
“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
Have a Happy 2013 in all the ways that really matter!
For additional insights on this and other subjects, may I suggest you visit the Radio Bible Class web site? It is one of many valuable resources I have enjoyed over the years; www.rbc.org .
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