Lastly, to die without an heir was considered a bad death. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells of a man who had no heir and yet worked all of his life, gaining great wealth. Ultimately it was in vain; there was no one to whom he could pass it on, and he would die alone (Ecclesiastes 4:8).
Absalom, the son of King David, was a man whose life embodied all three aspects of a bad death. He died as a young man, he died a violent death, and he left no heir. On the other hand, to die a good death meant you died in old age, having lived your life to the full; you died in peace and you died with your children and family surrounding you.1 If you ask people today what constitutes a good death they will say, “Having lived a full life, at peace with everyone, and being surrounded by your loved ones.”
These three factors were major concerns about death, but the Old Testament saints had one more concern. They believed death would separate the person from God, and this alone made death so terrible. The prophet Isaiah declared, “The grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise…The living, the living—they praise you” (Isaiah 38:18–19). The thought of death filled people with despair since God could not be praised from the grave, but the psalmist introduced a word of hope. He declared, “God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself” (Psalm 49:15). In other words, death was not the end of it all, but God would take his own to be with him. Ultimately this hope was fully realized by the resurrection of Jesus, who conquered death and assured his followers that death was not final or the end. Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25–26). God triumphed over death!
We will all die, but in order to die well we need to learn to live well. John Henry Cardinal Newman once stated, “Fear not that your life will come to an end, but rather that it will never have had a beginning.”
In medieval times Christians thought about their death. Disease that brought about death was rampant, and daily the death toll rose. The awareness of their impending death caused many to prepare for it through what was termed ars moriendi (the art of dying).2 This was a series of instructions on how to prepare for one’s death, and death was seen as a spiritual event that was to be actively undertaken in the light of eternity.
In many respects the life we are living is a prelude and preparation for the life to come. The psychologist Theresa Rando suggests that knowing we will die one day helps us to live differently: we will savour life; we will find new strength to make major decisions; it will reveal the importance of intimacy and to see our achievements as having had significance.3 All this may be true, but from a Christian perspective there is much more.
If we are going to live forever in eternity with God, then first and foremost we need to consider our relationship with God. One day we will step through the doorway of death and stand face to face with God. Knowing this, it is essential we grow in our relationship with God. We need to be focused on developing a deeper intimacy with the One who created us and who called us to be his children. Therefore we need to ask, “Do I love God more and more day by day? Is there anything that is taking his rightful place in my life? Is there anything that is causing me to drift away from him?”
We need to anticipate that along the way there will be challenges and difficulties that can cause us to lose focus. We may drift away from God, or we may find that these troublesome times are really opportunities to learn to depend on him for more and more of his strength. Author Ken Boa writes,
Far from promising a life of ease and prosperity, the New Testament affirms that those who follow Christ will face a new dimension of obstacles and struggles that they did not know before they committed their lives to him. In fact, the intensity of spiritual warfare is proportional to the seriousness of a believer’s response to the terms of discipleship…At the end of his last discourse to his disciples, Jesus assured them “These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have tribulation, but take courage! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).4
This workbook is designed to help you explore a number of issues that relate to your life and your relationship with God. In our living and in our dying we need to be assured daily of the grace and love of God. Living, Dying, Living Forever is a spiritual experience that will enable you to consider how to live differently in order that you may die well and have the assurance of living forever. You need to be able to sort out issues that will make the journey exciting and hopeful.
Take your time, explore the issues raised, ask God to give you the insight and wisdom you need, and then act on whatever he tells you to do. God will empower you to take the right steps. You may want to quit; persevere. You are on a journey, and when this phase of eternal life is completed, God will call you home, and you will see him face to face.
Prayer
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 1:24–25)
Chapter One: The Journey
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. (Hebrews 12:1–2)
Blessing on the Journey
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rains fall softly upon your fields.
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
(Irish Blessing)
If you were told you had a limited amount of time to live, how would this influence the way you lived out your remaining days? Would your values change? Would you make radical changes, or would you continue living as you presently do?
There are some people who would make radical changes and try to accomplish their goals in the time they have left. The movie The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson as a hedonistic multimillionaire and Morgan Freeman as a loyal married mechanic, is about two men stricken with cancer who wind up as roommates in the hospital and eventually become friends. When their prognoses turn grim, they make an agreement to complete a “bucket list,” an inventory of things they want to do before they die—or “kick the bucket.” They make a plan, but the plan is not as a simple as they anticipated. Both have unfinished business, but the biggest challenge they discover is being able to face death knowing they have made peace with their lives.
Many people, especially those who are young, want to deny the imminence of death. On the one hand, all of us know we will ultimately die, but we hope it is somewhere in the distant future. On the other hand, the Bible emphasizes the brevity of life and the need to invest our lives wisely. David the Psalmist wrote,
“Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath…Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.” (Psalm 39:4–7)
The prophet Isaiah contrasted the temporal and the eternal with a different metaphor:
“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:6–8)
These writers are telling us that life is shorter than most of