Death

What is death to you?

Death is something very real to me. Death is unimaginable to some people out there. People who have yet to experience the loss of a loved one can't bear the thought of death.

Who can bear the thought of death, really? Facing it a thousand times doesn't make it easier on anyone. If anything, one learns to dread the thought of death.

I'm always comforted at the thought of a saved soul going to be with Christ. But if the person wasn't saved? I remember once, during an Easter play practice where we did a scary play on death and the fires of hell.. and I received an sms about someone I knew who had passed on. At that moment, the fear for all those around me who were still unsaved gripped me really really hard. What if they passed on without ever knowing Christ?

I see the fear of death around me everyday. I ask God for His healing grace all the time.

My question is: Do we really know how much longer we have on earth? God never promised us that we'd live until a hundred years old if we were faithful servants. If anything, God takes us away to be with Him when we are done with our tasks on earth.

It's easy for people who don't feel the pain to tell others to let go, to go back to Christ. If it were that easy to let go, to have painless deaths, I'd gladly give people that advice too.

But I know how death hurts, how it affects others around.

I look at my 7-year-old relatives playing so happily, still sheltered by the comfortable life they lead. And remembered how death had introduced its vicious claws to me at that tender age. And I pray that these kids never experience the pain I had to experience, the pain no kid should ever go through. Mothers ought to comfort kids, not the other way around.

Again, I marvel at how the Apostles chose to die such painful deaths. After going through so much suffering on earth, they couldn't even have the dignity of dying a peaceful death.

And here I am, griping about my life, which is nothing compared to these great people.

Teach me, O Lord.

Sorry about my morbid post.. =)