A Pit Stop for Death
There's no guarantee on how long life will last, except forever
Here’s what I had to say about death on January 13, 2015:
“When we come into life, there is no guarantee on how long we will stay. In fact, from the moment we are born, it is a certainty that we will die. God makes no claims to the contrary. In fact, he tells us in all frankness that death will come to all mankind. This is not a hidden fact; it is a well-known reality.
However, for some reason, most of us push forward in life mostly ignoring the reality of death and pretending that it will never come. It seems to me that the smarter thing to do would be to remember our morality daily and ask God to help us live well today so that when death comes, no matter how or when it comes, we will be as prepared as we can be.
It is so difficult for us when someone dies. Especially when someone dies young. But as I said, God gives absolutely no guarantees on how long life will last. To initiate life is to initiate death. They are a package deal…
It often seems “unfair” when we or those we love are suffering…It is difficult to watch a loved one suffer from sickness at the end of their life. But can we really claim that two years of sickness at the end of a healthy life is “unfair”?
It seems to me that God is far more merciful than he is fair, and we ought to be profoundly grateful for this. To my knowledge, God has not promised to be “fair” per se. That is, he has not promised to give us all equal portions of good and bad or to level off every person’s experiences so that they are equivalently distributed in terms of health, riches, suffering, sorrow, and sickness.
He has, however, arranged these parameters of “fairness”: We all get to live, and we all die. And he has said in perfect seriousness that he can and will help us emerge successfully from whatever happens in the middle. And not only that, but unbelievable as it is, God has arranged our eternal and everlasting escape from death itself. So as tragic and final as death seems, it really isn’t. God sent Christ to crush death forever and he did so. We only have to wait for a while to see that effect of death undone. Is that so unfair?
God has not promised us ease, relaxation, constant health, or tearlessness. He has offered us eternal life, but that only comes through the adventure of mortal life with a pit stop for death. God intends to give us everlasting health and bliss, but he has to expose us to the opposite of those things first, so that we will understand them.
In the case of little children dying, it is especially easy to feel that God was unfair, that the child died “too soon” or that the suffering and sadness involved is too great. Whatever the reason for God allowing a child to return to him sooner instead of later, God has not abandoned his post or broken his promises. He did not promise that children would never die; he promised to redeem them all in everlasting glory. And he will do so. Every one of them is tucked safely under his wing, and their grieving parents can find refuge there, too…
On the whole, God gives us more joy than suffering. But there are those who are born in suffering. Some are born with diseases or maladies that afflict them for their entire lives, however long that might be. Some people are born into healthy bodies, but into unhealthy families or unhealthy physical surroundings. Which is more “fair” or “unfair”? It would be difficult to say.
While God has not promised “equality” or “fairness,” he has promised to be both just and merciful. He has also promised some other things: to mourn with us when we mourn, to strengthen us when we are feeble, to be our shade in the blistering sun and our refuge in the storm; to go before us and behind us, to fight our battles and be with us always.
These promises indicate that God knew we would sustain wounds, fight battles, mourn losses, grow feeble, face storms, and endure perils. God already knew this, already planned for it, and warned us of the perils we would face by the nature of the promises he made to us.
He also promises that the sting of death will be swallowed up in Christ. This means he knows we will die. And he has prepared exquisitely for that known and necessary event. We will die, but we, through him, will surely rise again.”
Kimberly Ells journal, January 13, 2015
“The only difference between the old and young dying is, one lives longer in heaven and eternal light and glory than the other…It mattereth not whether we live long or short on the earth.” J. Smith
