Time is such a precious thing.

For most of us, it is precious because with live with the knowledge that we do not have a limitless supply of it.  We all wish we could find a 25th hour in the day.  I have petitioned the Lord for such to no avail.  On a larger scale, however, we are oblivious to what "not enough time" really means.

As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15:24, the end WILL come.  Time eventually runs out.  The odd thing is that I often live in ignorance of that truth.  I live as if I have all the time in world to do the things I really need to do - things like loving my wife well or building Christ into the lives of my children.   I live with a youthful, though misguided, notion that I am in control of my days and my time.  William Henley's concluding words to his poem, Invictus, resonate somewhere deep within me:

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But even if He doesn’t…

Faith, trust, belief, reliance, hope. I have faith that God will. I trust that God will. I believe God is going to. As Christians today we are smitten with the thought that God will grant our prayers, fix our problems, heal our sickness, deliver us from struggle, and rescue us from tribulation. We claim it. We focus on it. We sing about it. We preach about it. We rely on it.

Perhaps He will and Perhaps He won’t. 

I live in San Diego and if you live here, you can't help but be impacted by the muder of Chelsea King. When she went missing, thousands began to pray for her return.  Thousands turned out to search for her.  Thousands now morn her savage murder.  Over the past week, probably because I am a lawyer that represents death row inmates, people have wanted to talk to me about the case.  Frequently the issue of God's role in all of this comes up and people will talk about it shaking their faith.

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It seems like a lot of people are dying these days.  In fact, the death rate is pretty constant, about 150,000 people per day worldwide.  But it does seem like an unusual number of famous people are dying, including one whose televised memorial service attracted an audience of around a billion people.  

What do you think about when you think about the death of someone you know, whether a personal acquaintance or a public person?  Probably a variety of things.  You think about death itself, which usually brings out sorrow because the person you know or admire is no longer here.  But you also think about life and all of the good things the person did.  This is where sorrow gives way to joy.

If you're like most people, you also think about life after death, also known as immortality.  Even people with no formalized belief system have this nagging suspicion that there's something beyond this life.  Others are confident that immortality is a given.  But does anyone really know?  How can you possibly prove something that is immaterial and beyond our ability to measure?  To put it another way, is it possible to find evidence for immortality?  Actually, it is. Maybe not hard evidence, but evidence nonetheless.

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Every morning of this past week there has been something new to write about.  It’s ridiculous.  Just when I think the world is going to calm down there’s another death, another engagement or another plane or train crash.  The sensationalism we’re all living with was enough to keep me up last night pondering all of this.  Just a few hours before I went to sleep I was chewing another pillow watching the Bachelorette.  My husband was on his computer next to me barely watching until I whacked him with the pillow and said, “Can you believe this!?  Why do I watch this show?  I’m so mad right now!”  I fumed around the house before scrubbing my teeth much harder than usual.  Now that I’ve slept and woke up with bright whites, I’m not sure I’m any less confused, but I’m rested.  I’m in a state of numbness due to “the most dramatic____________” fill it in with whatever you want: death, accident, rose ceremony yet.  There’s no end.  My cup overfloweth… somehow I don’t think that is what that phrase is supposed to mean.  And why is the cup just flowing and flowing?  

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I am constantly awe-struck by our culture's response to death and loss.  We don't know how to deal with it and sometimes offer not-so-helpful advice to those who are hurting.  We also rush through it much too quickly.  Other cultures are much better at this.  My friend recently wrote a great article on grieving and I wanted to share it because the insights are extremely helpful.  Click here to read the article.  

If the link doesn't work copy and paste this: http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2007/01/good-grief/ 

 

 

Holy Saturday is the perfect limbo-day to think about both death and resurrection ... the two sides of the Easter coin .  Pursuant to my previous post about the value of Good Friday, my friend Justine asked if I would share the following lyric.  This is a fairly new song that will be featured on my upcoming cd (to be released this fall) -- more to the point, it's my diary!

As always, I'd be thrilled to hear how it hits you.

MY FAVORITE LIE 

Words (and music you can't hear on a blog) by Carolyn Arends

 

I'm a caterpillar who will not cocoon

Feels like  a tomb

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My high school students have no idea how to die.

How do I know? In class this week we’re reading an old school emo poem with the puzzling Greek title “Thanatopsis.” A seventeen year-old poet named William Cullen Bryant wrote his “vision of death” in 1813, a time when teenagers were apparently thinking about death more often than their modern peers. With the Puritan legacy in his rear view mirror, he defies the Christian worldview of his ancestors and basically says that when you die, that’s it. Young Bryant suggests that you shouldn’t worry about dying because you will join the gazillion other corpses rotting underground who are part of one big annihilated family—and he feels this should be rather comforting to you.

Quite frankly, it isn’t.

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