Allan died suddenly this morning.
That was the news which started my workday on Wednesday. One of my coworkers passed suddenly from a heart attack. It was shocking news.
It was a sobering reminder to me about life and how short it is. None of us are promised tomorrow. Depressing? Yes, it can be. None of us likes to dwell on this subject. We don’t like to talk about it and we are never prepared for the end. It's because this subject is painful and we are wired to avoid pain if possible so we don't dwell on it.
The Bible tells us that life is a vapor. It is here for a little while and then vanishes away. (James 4:14) I will be totally honest with you and tell you that I am not happy with that analogy. I don't want to get old and I don't want to die. I don’t think any of us wants to think about it. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it. The end is going to come whether we like it or not. We all ignore the reality of our mortality and live with the notion that we will live forever. After hearing the news of my co-worker’s passing, I wondered about my own life. With the average lifespan now at 78.79 years, I am closer to the end than I am to the beginning. So, what am I going to do with what I have left?
I want to live each day with gratitude. I lived too much of my earlier years in frustration. I was miserable and life is too short to be miserable. I reached a point in my life where I made the decision to make drastic changes. When I did, I stepped into a new world. Now that I am here on the other side of that decision, I am often reminded that God can make these years better than my former years - and He has. He turned my sorrow into joy.
Yes, we can dwell on the negative that we are only vapors but we should focus on the positive of each day that we have and appreciate things more.
There are also many beliefs about the afterlife. According to John 3:16 we have the promise of eternal life. Can I prove that scientifically? No. Does it make the end any better? Not really but it still gives us a hope that this life isn't the end of us. Getting there is the painful part of the process. I wish we didn't have to go through that transition. The grief of losing a loved one is tremendous whether we believe in eternal life or not. Even the strongest believer can have occasions when they fear the subject of death. Simply believing in eternal life doesn't help us deal with our current state of mortality. We don't have control of it. That's the most frustrating part.
Instead of thinking and living in fear of the end of our lives, we need to focus on the present and how we are living our life today. We need to take care of ourselves and do what we can to stay healthy. There's certainly no need to surrender to it. Sometimes we take for granted the people around us that truly love us and things that make us happy. We need to focus on those things and trust that God has our future taken care of.
I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. Diane Ackerman
