News & Views
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We Are All Just One Spin Away
As Christians, we live life passionately, storing up treasures in heaven with the ultimate goal of one day meeting Jesus face to face and spending eternity with Him. While we long for heaven, most of us abstain from confronting the pain that comes with a casualty until it meets us head-on. We not only fear death itself, we fear discussing the fact that it may affect us, or someone we love dearly, in the future. We resist being involved in the process of making funeral arrangements or discussing wills with loved ones, not because we do not want to be supportive, but because we love life and would rather not face the painful alternative. Perhaps our culture is to blame for our fear of death. Ultimately, we must understand that death is a part of life’s process and for God’s children, it’s the beginning of a new and glorious life.
Dr. Mike Fullingim, Professor of Religion, has witnessed the relationship between life and death firsthand through his missionary endeavors in Papua New Guinea. Their culture addresses death very differently than America.
“In New Guinea, they [the village members] would literally hold onto a body for a day and a half mourning the loss. They would also have to dig the grave themselves," Dr. Fullingim said. “But in America, my niece has never been to a funeral. We’ve been so shielded from so much stuff, but touching a dead person is how you say goodbye.”
“Ultimately, we must understand that death is a part of life’s process and for God’s children, it’s the beginning of a new and glorious life."
When asked about some of the things that he thought contributed to the fear of death in our culture, Dr. Fullingim commented on the abundance of life-sustaining technology.
“I think it’s the scientific improvements of our culture, which are good things because people that would have died before can now be saved," Dr. Fullingim said. "Think about the people before that had lock-jaw or gangrene that had to just watch the person die, whereas now we have antibiotics. It’s almost as though there has been a revival of trying to produce immortality. I wonder if it’s generational or because there’s been a cultural shift from rural to urban.”
“Death is pain,” Dr. Mike said.
Whether it is a physical or an emotional pain, death produces a sting. According to Fullingim, we do not live a realistic life because now we have so many options in pill form to make it painless.
“Reasons that [New Guinean’s] buried [their dead] before were for simple things," Dr. Fullingim said. "It seems like that now we have cures for everything.”
Dr. Fullingim went on to connect developments in the medical field to changes in our cultural values.
“As a result, now when somebody dies, it’s like you want to blame the hospital for having done something wrong, for wrongful death or malpractice," Dr. Mike said. "So if we want to get rich we’re going to sue a doctor and put him out of business because my loved one died. All of us are going to die anyway and you couldn’t have sued anybody before. That all kind of fits together-that we want to be pain-free.”
Regardless of the condition you suffer from, drug companies are making millions in an endless endeavor to ensure that we live virtually pain-free lives. Dr. Fullingim described our culture as, “a culture that probably produces the value that if you have pain, you’re not living the quality of life that you should. People in other cultures don’t have that opportunity.”
Solomon addressed the relationship between the present life and eternity in Ecclesiastics. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3.11). God has put His Word in our hearts in order for us to find some satisfaction in this life. God’s method works so well that even those who are certain of their place in eternity are not eager to leave earth for the glory yet to come. God put temporary desires in our hearts, but He has put the desire for eternity in our hearts as well.
“If you are displeased with life then you don’t want any part of it. But if you have lovely children, a lovely spouse, you are enjoying life, and then all of the sudden the doctor says, ‘you have terminal cancer and you have three weeks left to live.’ All of the sudden, the things you’ve been living for that brought you happiness [are gone]…You better figure out that there’s something beyond that. ‘What am I leaving for my kids? I’m not going to get to see them graduate.’ That does bring sadness. The point is that there is a sting to death because it’s the end of the earthly tense.” Dr. Fullingim said. “We’re told that our Jesus gives a living hope, it doesn’t die when there’s death.”
"For God’s children, part of truly living is dying. We cannot meet Jesus face to face unless we are willing to let go of our physical lives on earth."
As he approached the end of his life, Solomon used several metaphors to illustrate death. “Remember him-before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. ‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. Everything is meaningless’” (Ecclesiastes 12.6-8). It is hard to be sure that Solomon’s view is the Christian view, the resurrected view, but he definitely had a dismal perspective towards growing old. “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them"- before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim” (Ecclesiastes 12.1-3). In other words, Solomon is saying there is no pleasure in getting old. You can not see, you become stooped, and you have no true satisfaction.
Just as Solomon grew old and described the loss of pleasure in his life, similarly, mainstream American culture tries to take the beauty out of growing old. Instead of delighting in the wisdom that comes with age, we become discontent with wrinkles, stooped backs, arthritis, and graying hair. You will not see a grandmother on the cover of Glamour magazine. We value beauty and there is no beauty in dying when you have no hope of heaven.
“In some cultures it’s just the opposite,” Dr. Fullingim said. “When you’re older, you value wisdom. Americans have the value of beauty so therefore we hate getting older. We think that if you’re sixty-five then you’re no good anymore. That’s pretty sad.”
Again, we have a culture that’s focused upon youth.
Although it is easy to push the thoughts of death away and not address them, there is a certain beauty in death if one knows Christ. If we have been storing up treasures in heaven, then we should keep storing them. Continue praying for the lost, that they may come to know Christ. For God’s children, part of truly living is dying. We cannot meet Jesus face to face unless we are willing to let go of our physical lives on earth.
“If one is willing to do God’s will, then one is on the right track, Dr. Stults said. "Getting to heaven depends on faith.”
In the New Testament, Paul declared the purpose for his life. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1.21-24). Dealing with death is not easy, and it never will be, but if we place our hope in God, He will see us through.