Christ taught an astonishing thing about physical death: not merely that it is an experience robbed of its terror, but that as an experience it does not exist at all. To “sleep in Christ,” “depart and be with Christ,” “fall asleep,”—these are the expressions the New Testament uses. It is high time the “icy river,” “the gloomy portal,” “the bitter pains,” and all the rest of the melancholy images were brought face to face with the fact: Jesus Christ has abolished death.
~J. B. Phillips (1906-1982)
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep…. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in 1 Corinthians 15
This writer has a friend who is about to take his final breath from the confines of his physical body. This man is a preacher. And instead of resting at home on his last leg of the race, he is continuing to fulfill his call and call others to the upward call of G_d in Christ Jesus. It is gorgeous to watch a man, racked with pain, organs failing, and breath coming in shorter draws to continue to speak clearly about the goodness and reality of of the One in whom he has fully put his trust. His courage comes from a heart so full of G_d’s Love, that it simply spills out on to those around him.
The normal play in this world is to cluck our tongues and sigh about how sad it is that a man is about to die. And this is wrong.
i have watched this man – and men and women like him – for many years now. And here is what i now know. Those who have cast themselves on Christ have – without reservation – said that the entire paths of their lives have been completely worth the pain and suffering found in the difficult processes of mortal disease and injury.
It seems, they have found something deeply exciting about the entire process of living. Living in Him, means that life does not ever end. And living under pressure now, only creates a platform through which they will explode into the Presence of their Creator earlier and more ready to meet Him, than if they had not undergone the stress and strain and suffering of their disease.
Words like, “I just want to glorify G_d” have something beyond a ring of truth when spoken by a man wracked with the pain of an aggressive and metastasizing liver cancer. They are truth. They are like the man with a gun being pressed to his forehead, being told to give up the location of his fellow soldiers – and the soldier gently smiling and saying: “no deal.”
Words like, “It has all been worth it” must be considered carefully, when they come from a mom who – dying of a lung cancer for which she never smoked – and who is leaving behind two young girls and a good earthly husband. They are words that do not come from painkillers, but from the clarity brought about by real suffering.
Words like, “Today I must testify to the amazing grace and loving care of our Heavenly Father” must be heeded when they come from a missionary pulled from the field by Invasive Lobular Carcinoma – and who travels through the painful valleys of recovery and financial stress – and comes out with a smile as she immediately begins to follow His calling back to Africa.
Can we see what they see?
These beloved friends of mine (and they would be wonderful friends to you if you knew them!), know beyond any shadow of a doubt, that they are the many brethren to come after the Firstborn. They know beyond anything that all is now, and will ever be, well in Him – for they are already in Him – and He is in them forever.
And as the stress and strain and suffering of disease tear away the sense of stability we have in this crazy, fallen world, our spiritual eyes begin to look at the reality of what our lives are so very close to seeing anyway. This reality being the continuation of an eternity in the Presence of G_d…
Completely whole.
Completely free of pain.
Completely strong.
Completely real.
Completely at peace.
Completely alive.
Completely free.
Completely powerful.
Completely purposeful.
Completely home.
Beloved, there is a river of Life there proceeding from the Throne of G_d and The Lamb. And what people, who have been through suffering like this, understand is that they have already drunk deeply from that Source, and are simply looking forward to fully swimming in the Flow.
We do not mourn, as those who have no hope – for we have a Blessed Hope indeed!
We are always in the forge, or on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.
~Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)
