Questions for You.

Dying is the process up to death; death is the split second transition to life eternal.
This post isn’t about dying, it’s about death.

Why are we so bent on avoiding the subject of death?

As my grandfather used to say, “We’re all terminal.” All of us will die.

You are just as terminally ill as I am; you just have a different timeline.

You might die peacefully or in unspeakable suffering, but you are going to die. Yes, Jesus might come back in your lifetime, but He might not.

Why don’t parents talk to their children about death?

How is it helpful to pretend it doesn't happen or to be dishonest about it?

Wouldn’t it be better to equip children, and people of all ages, with the ability to think about death?

Why does our culture consider death a taboo topic? (My parents didn’t and the ability to talk about anything growing up has been very, very beneficial to me.)

Why can’t we talk about death?

What are you doing to prepare for death?

Do you think about death?

What do you think about death?

Will you know that you have used your life for something worthwhile when you are dying?

Are your Earthly and Heavenly affairs in order?

If you died this second, would you leave your relationships in pain or peace?

Why is death almost always considered negative?

Why don’t we hear more teaching on Heaven as a main topic instead of just hearing fragmented information?

What if we did talk about death?

What if we were consistently aware of our fragility and the brevity of this life?

What if this awareness were something positive, something helpful, or something valuable?

How would that awareness change how we live?

What if death were something we accepted as something we all must face, a common experience, something for which we all must be prepared?

The fact of the matter is that we only have to be afraid of death if we choose to be. We can take hold of the freedom Jesus offers us, we can hold on to the fact that when He comes back, death will be annihilated altogether:

       There He will remove the cloud of gloom,
       the shadow of death that hangs over the earth.
       He will swallow up death forever!
       The Sovereign LORD will wipe away all tears.
       He will remove forever all insults and mockery
       against His land and people.

       The LORD has spoken!
       In that day the people will proclaim,

      “This is our God!
      We trusted in Him, and He saved us!
      This is the LORD, in whom we trusted.
      Let us rejoice in the salvation He brings!”
      Isaiah 25:7-9

      Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this
      Scripture will be fulfilled:

      “Death is swallowed up in victory.
      O death, where is your victory?
      O death, where is your sting?”

      For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God!
      He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
      I Corinthians 15:54

“No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence.

Whether we are young or old makes no difference. What are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the sight of God? And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to the goal? That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up—that is for young and old alike to think about. Why are we so afraid when we think about death? ... Death is only dreadful to those who live in dread and fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God’s Word. Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him. Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle; it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.

How do we know that dying is so dreadful? Who knows whether, in our human fear and anguish we are only shivering and shuddering at the most glorious, heavenly, blessed event in the world?

Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In His Grip, Martha