We have had a rash of funerals at Holy Cross in the first two weeks of 2009. One person died of surgery complications, one person abused drugs, one person had a heart attack and one killed themselves!
My Son Jacob sent an article to the Sanford Herald from Africa where he is now and spoke about the way that the African people deal with death.
In addition to that the "Crossways Class" that I was leading this week spoke about Christ's second coming and the time when all of our lives will be over.
These things have caused me to spend some time thinking again about what it means to die! People who live without a relationship with Jesus Christ, will usually be afraid of death. I think that this comes because we are naturally afraid of anything that we have not experienced and that we know nothing about. I have no desire to eat Sushi, I have not experienced raw fish and I am therefore a little afraid to have that first bite. Once you get past the first taste, you decide that raw fish is not that bad. As the commercial used to say "now you know and knowing is half the battle".
In Jesus Christ, we know that death is not the end to our life but a door to a new and glorious existence with God in Heaven. We believe that He will never leave us alone and when we leave this life He will be with us to guide and protect us. For many of us we begin to look forward to the opportunity for this new existence. However we are still afraid of death! (we have not experienced it). We face our death as the great door that must be opened but with out Jesus we have no idea of what is on the other side, when we know Him and believe what is on the other side we have a hole through the door. Instead of a big solid door, we have a sort of picket gate. You still have to open it to get to the other side, but you all able to see just what is coming.
When we begin to think in this manner about death it changes just how we grieve and even end of life issues. Our views on death will change our views on life.
In Christ,
Paul Hoyer
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