How Do I Face Death?
Do you hate the thought of death? If so, here is some encouragement.
Each fall, I'm reminded of how temporary life is. The leaves that once brought beauty to a tree break free, falling to the ground, only to be raked into a pile and discarded, leaving behind bare branches and a slight feeling of forlornness.
These fallen leaves are not so subtle a reminder that we, too, will follow their same path. One day, we will break free from our physical bodies, and our spirits will face one of two realities—eternity with God or eternity apart from him.
While childhoods make us feel invincible, the more we age, see loved ones die, and encounter health struggles of our own, the more we realize how temporal life is. The psalmist David certainly understood this struggle. After choosing to remain silent in the face of wickedness, David writes in Psalm 39:4-6,
4 “Lord, make me aware of my end
and the number of my days
so that I will know how short-lived I am.
5 In fact, you have made my days just inches long,
and my life span is as nothing to you.
Yes, every human being stands as only a vapor. Selah
6 Yes, a person goes about like a mere shadow.
Indeed, they rush around in vain,
gathering possessions
without knowing who will get them.
David shows us that sometimes, the natural response to problems is recognizing our mortality. As Gerald Wilson writes, “The psalmist wishes to know the ‘end’ of his life and the ‘number’ of his days (39:4), not in order to have mastery over life but to gain an appropriate appreciation for the tenuous and fragile nature of human existence.”[1]
There Is More
While many fear becoming “so heavenly minded they become of no earthly good,” the reality is that those who follow God live with this constant dual reality. We enjoy the pleasures of life and wrestle with our pain, all while recognizing there is a life to come. As C.S. Lewis said,
If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.[2]
Thus, to make the greatest impact in this world, we must keep our eyes focused on eternity while our feet are firmly planted in the reality of our present moment. How do we do this? The answer is to look to Jesus and walk as the Holy Spirit instructs us to walk.
Because of the Gospel
Thankfully, because of the gospel, “we are promised that this earthly life is not all we have. Rather, those united to Christ stand to inherit the entire world (Matt. 5:5; 25:34; 1 Cor. 3:21). Here and now, we are “sojourners,” strangers (Ps. 39:12). But it will not always be so.”[3]
The key is to fix our eyes on the author of eternal life, Jesus. This is the only solution for the brevity and cruelty of life. It’s because of him that this life we live has meaning, and it’s because of him that our life to come is filled with hope. So how much do you want him?
As John Piper says,
The critical question for our generation— and for every generation— is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?[4]
For the true follower of Christ, there is only one answer.
