Dec 2 - 1 Peter 1:24-25

Recently a parent wrote, asking about how to speak to their children about grandma's illness and impending death. Over the next several days, I'm letting you "listen in" to my pastoral advice. So far we have covered the following pieces of advice: 1. Be Honest and Upfront,  2. Focus Forward,  3. Grieve Honestly, 4. Grieve with Bold Determination

For "All flesh is like grass ... 

The grass withers, and the flower falls,

but the word of the Lord endures forever."

1 Peter 1:24-25

5

Give perspective

One of the reasons that we grieve so violently -- nowadays -- is because too many of us avoid the subject of death. Maybe we're superstitious: "If I ignore it, maybe it will forget about me."

Sorry. I doesn't work that way. Death is the rule ... not the exception.

Unfortunately, most of us don't live like that. In our modern days of medicine's miracles, people are living longer and longer. Therefore, death feels like a brutal exception and an unnecessary defeat.

It's not. It's normal.

A hundred years ago -- and for all of the centuries before that -- death was the rule rather than the exception. If you had four children, one or two might have made it to adulthood. Lots of mothers would have died in childhood. Lots of fathers would have died in farming accidents. Pneumonia and infection were frequent death sentences.

In my family, just a few decades earlier (and still in many parts of the world today), Mary Louise would have died delivering Paul. And Paul would have died along with her. And since Jay and Robbie are younger, they would have never been born. My whole family is a miracle. But do I act like that? No. Most of the time we treat life as an entitlement rather than a very fragile gift.

My recommendation is to start talking more about life as a gift -- a temporary gift.

... AND start talking about death as a normal part of life.

As families, we tend to clam up about these things. "If I ignore it, maybe it will forget about me." No! We need to stop the conspiracy of silence. Fear dwells in darkness. And as Christians, we really don't need to fear death.

I have a good friend that says, "It's always a good day to go to heaven." What if we start talking about ...

• life as a glorious and temporary treasure
• death as a normal part of life
• and our end here as a triumphant gateway to a better world (instead of a brutal exception and an unnecessary defeat)

In Christ's Love,

a guy who likes heaven and victory

more than secrets and defeat