There are times when I can't help but think about the people I have lost. My parents, siblings, other family members, and close friends. Tonight, I was thinking about a niece who died young (just 36 years old). Her death was, for me, the hardest because she was so young and her passing was so unexpected.
Maybe this is weird, but I am always amazed that people spend so much time avoiding thoughts of death. I've always felt that we should spend more - or at least as much - time thinking about death as we do thinking about life. We are alive for a finite period but death is forever. Death (no matter what you think Death is) will be for eternity.
I don't mind thinking about Death because, as a Christian, I know that dying will be the entry into a new life; eternal life. I can't imagine what Death will be to those without God. I guess I wouldn't want to think about a Godless eternity either.
When my sister died, our grandnephew (who was extremely close to her) was too young to understand what that meant. My best friend sent his mother a book to help him deal with the idea of my sister being gone. That book was called "Where Are You?". That's the question I ask whenever someone is no longer alive. If they are saved, I know they are with Jesus but I wonder what that must be like. If they were not saved, I wonder what that must be like.
As I was thinking of my young niece, I was wondering what she must be doing in eternity. Death into eternity (eternal life in the presence of God or eternity without God) is such a huge and important concept. I never have been able to wrap my mortal brain around it.
Dead is forever. For those who live their mortal lives without God, death will be an eternity without Him. That's Hell enough for me. Without God is something that I can't (and don't want to) imagine. Being eternally out of His presence.
I was listening to the comedian/actor Ricky Gervais speak on reasons for his Atheism. His logic sounds as nonsensical to me as I'm sure my faith would sound to him. I think what surprises me about generally intelligent people like Gervais and other Atheists is the finished sureness of their "faith". They have faith that there is no God just as I have faith in God. I don't have blind faith and there are times when I have to re-examine my belief. What I wonder is if Atheists ever re-examine their beliefs. Is there faith blind?
Some Atheists accuse Christians of believing out of fear or lack of intelligence. Yet many of them believe what they do out of anger or pride. I don't personally know a lot of Atheists but when I hear most talk about why they don't believe in God, I hear a lot of anger, grief, and/or pride. They can't understand why "a loving God" would let sickness or agony exist. Some of them talk about a personal loss that turned them away from believing in God. I always wonder (especially about seemingly intelligent Atheists) why they don't try to understand God's holiness. The Bible explains why there is sickness, evil, loss, sorrow, etc. But most Atheists have too much pride to accept the fact that our sin caused that. Most Atheists have decided that they are more important, smarter, and kinder than the God of the Bible. Since they can't understand His ways, He must not exist. That's childish and silly.
Understand that I am not being dismissive of the doubts of Atheists. I had doubts. I had to keep following the question of "Why?" to the point where I found the answers that led me to God and not away from Him. It's my contention that people who cannot think past their pride cannot get to the real answers they seek.
I think that the best example of someone who chased the answers to every "Why?" is Lee Strobel. He went on to write "The Case for Christ" (Wikipedia gives a synopsis of the film version.). His skills and mindset as an investigative journalist urged him to keep chasing down the questions and answers. For something so important as our eternal life, we should all be as curious and diligent in finding answers.
I pray for the people like Ricky Gervais and others. I feel for their pain and loss or whatever hurt caused them to decide to ignore the existence of God. I hope that they think about Death enough that they can look past their pride to find Jesus's gift of salvation. It happened to me, it's happened to others. It can happen to anyone. I'm thankful every day that it happened to my niece before she died.
Peace
--Free
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