If I Died Today…
If I died today…
I can imagine you are looking at this first line and wondering what this post is about. Well, Let’s find out.
If I am reported dead 5 minutes after making this post, I won’t be happy to hear or read the words “Gone too soon”. Because I didn’t go too soon. I went when I was meant to go. And I went joyfully because to leave this world and be united to my father in his perfect world has been the entire point of my existence.
This post is about death and our phobia of him (it). Is Death a fun guy? No! But should we fear him? No! When we fear or react to death, we make many grave errors. I believe this was part of why Paul said he didn’t want us to be uninformed. Death is brutal and painful, yes but it is glorious when saints die and how we respond to it matters.
For example, when we cry “Gone too soon”, it is at the root, a statement of arrogance. It assumes that we were with God at the conception and planning of the person’s days or worst still we have better plans and purposes than God did for the person. God Is hence the bad guy who couldn’t see ahead to the bright future the person could have. The audacity for me. When In fact, it is God who ordered our days before they came to be and scripted our lives.
I know what you are thinking. Is he saying God is the source of all death? Because that’s not possible. In response, I’d ask if your beliefs are single or dual. When you sing the lyrics of the world-famous hymn:
“From life’s first breath to final death;
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man;
Can ever pluck me from his hand.
Till he returns or calls me home;
here in the power of Christ, I stand”
Is it mere rhetoric and singing or is it what you believe? Do you believe that Jesus alone holds your (and that of those around you) destiny or he shares power and control with the devil? Is God sovereign over your life and this world or he shares custody with the devil?
These are pertinent questions we must ask. Folks, I do not want you to be uninformed about death. We should not fear death. In fact, if we are being truly Christian and understand God and his ways, we should desire it. Not desiring to the level that we induce it, but desiring to the level that we don’t fear, loathe or run from it.
Our heart pose should be that of the Apostle Paul when he wrote, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. That is, I want to die because it is gain.
To leave behind this world and its wahala and behold my father’s face in a world devoid of trouble is gain. It’s of more value than living 80 years “enjoying” riches, power, friends, and family, (which are finite because they could all die within my lifespan).
And yet to live is Christ. If God bids me to live one more day, month, or year, it is for his name and his will. He has a purpose and I’d best fulfill it with the breath he gives. Either way, if I live or die, I do so In Christ Alone!
This should be our heart pose. I’d stop here for today but I really want to hear your thoughts about the Grim Reaper — death.
