Presumption
I don't write about God to try to convince anyone of anything. I don't really think we do a lot of convincing anyway. In my own life it was watching how people lived their lives that affected me. I write about God because I absolutely love him, he is my favorite person, my best friend. I write about what interests me and what is in my heart and mind. I don't write as a means to do anything, I just write. Kind of thinking out loud.
I was reading my bible last night, and the chapter I was on was second Samuel. I read verse 11 and 12, where Samuel has his affair with Bathsheba, gets her pregnant, has her husband killed so he can marry her, which God was not happy with. God tells him that the child will die. Samuel goes into a period of fasting and prayer while the child is sick and dying, for several days. His advisors beg him to eat or drink but he refuses. Finally, after the child dies, they worry, what he do now that the child dies? David, when he knows the child is dead, "arose from the earth, washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came to the house of the Lord and worshipped him".
Ok, the advisors don't get this. He mourns and fasts and weeps while the child lives and eats and worships after the child was dead. David tells them, while the child lived there was the chance that God will have mercy, but when the child is dead, he is not going to come back to me. I may go to him but he won't come to me.
I have read some comments in various places that it doesn't make sense for Christians to be "fearful" of someone dying, why are we trying so hard to keep them from a wonderful place, if we really think that's what is going to happen. This seems to me to be an attempt to cast aspersion on Christian belief in heaven, imply that our faith must not be so great if we don't want to see someone die. Here we have a great example of a man described as being a "man after God's own heart", someone greatly loved by God. He isn't flinging his child headlong into God's hands, even knowing that God had already said the child would die. If anything, it is a character of Christians who know God, to realize he is merciful and to never be far from the hope of his mercy, to ask his mercy is not to go against his will. To accept his will when we find it is important. To continue to cry and fast and petition after the fact is like arguing with God. I don't see a contradiction in that.
I don't think there is any good or bad way to mourn. Some people need to be alone, some need to talk. Neither is disrespectful. Let those who need to talk, talk and those who need to be alone, be alone.
I know when I die I will close my eyes here and open them in another place. I have a beautiful little place by the sea there, and when I die I will awaken there, I don't know much beyond that but that I know. I don't fear death, and I do not care what happens to my empty shell when I die, I would like to be cremated. The idea of decaying grosses me out, and God is more than able to gather my molecules back from the four winds when and if he needs to. My software is eternal and safely in his hands, he can build me a new box later. But I am not running headlong into death, knowing that it leads to a good place. The fact that I am here is God's doing, my life is not my own and it is not mine to take. That is the thing that non believers don't know. They labor under the misunderstanding that they own their lives. We don't. I would love to go home but as long as I am here, my job isn't done. To take it or hasten it artificially is like stealing from God. It is also an act of rebellion, in my estimation one of the biggest you can do, sort of the ultimate temper tantrum. That's not to deny the true suffering that some people have, that leads them to suicide. I don't know if the enemy can have free reign with someone who has not accepted Christ into their life, but I know that the scriptures say that God will not lead us into temptation without also giving us a way through, he won't put us through more than we can handle without giving us means to deal with it.
I don't want to be in pain, I hate pain. If I am in the process of dying, I don't want to have my life prolonged unnaturally. I don't consider food and water to be life prolonging any more than I consider air to be life prolonging. If I am dying anyway the food won't keep me alive, my body won't assimilate it. I know that. People like Terri aren't terminal. She wasn't dying anyway. That is what hospice is supposed to do. Everyine who responds to the situation with anecdotal information about dying family members is talking about dying people. Terri wasn't dying. She was killed. I don't want to be killed. It seems pretty simple to me. If I am an empty shell, so be it. My spirit might be gone, and if it is, my body will follow. If it doesn't, I am in there somewhere. I may be asleep in there and if I am, it's no torture, don't think I would be miserable. It's probably the first really good sleep I get. Morphine doesn't kill people that aren't already dying. Morphine is used for more than pain. It's used to help with breathing difficulty too, and with anxiety, it's a CNS depressant. Some poeple say they killed her with morphine. Please don't say that, it's not true. It's a misinformed opinion.
Valuing life that isn't productive or useful is not a crime, it is a value. I believe that no life can be judged unworthy. We can't compare one life to another, and say this one matters and this one doesn't. To do so is fundamentally flawed. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In God's eyes, lying is no better or worse than murder, sin is sin. When we try to make the point that some people deserve less value than others because of their acts, we fall into that values judgement. God doesn't do that. Each life is precious, and while he mourns over that harm we may have caused he still loves that person. His greatest hope, I believe , is that the sinner will turn from their ways and ask forgiveness. We are responsible for our own actions, we should be held up to the law of the land, and pay that price, in the physical world. It's the spiritual harm our sins do that God sees and grieves him. Our value is not diminished in his eyes. He already knows we sin (that's why Jesus did what he did), it's how we respond to sin that makes the difference.
The eternal price has been paid, our value is not dependent upon our actions, it is inherent. Even someone who is in a brain dead state has inherent value. If for no other reason than to give us a chance to care for someone who can in no way repay us. The poor you will have with you always, Jesus said. There's another chance to help. The fact that these things exist is not evidence of a masochistic God who hurts people just to give others that chance to help them, it is evidence of a fallen world, and a God who can pull meaning and purpose out of the most heinous circumstance.
I was reading my bible last night, and the chapter I was on was second Samuel. I read verse 11 and 12, where Samuel has his affair with Bathsheba, gets her pregnant, has her husband killed so he can marry her, which God was not happy with. God tells him that the child will die. Samuel goes into a period of fasting and prayer while the child is sick and dying, for several days. His advisors beg him to eat or drink but he refuses. Finally, after the child dies, they worry, what he do now that the child dies? David, when he knows the child is dead, "arose from the earth, washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came to the house of the Lord and worshipped him".
Ok, the advisors don't get this. He mourns and fasts and weeps while the child lives and eats and worships after the child was dead. David tells them, while the child lived there was the chance that God will have mercy, but when the child is dead, he is not going to come back to me. I may go to him but he won't come to me.
I have read some comments in various places that it doesn't make sense for Christians to be "fearful" of someone dying, why are we trying so hard to keep them from a wonderful place, if we really think that's what is going to happen. This seems to me to be an attempt to cast aspersion on Christian belief in heaven, imply that our faith must not be so great if we don't want to see someone die. Here we have a great example of a man described as being a "man after God's own heart", someone greatly loved by God. He isn't flinging his child headlong into God's hands, even knowing that God had already said the child would die. If anything, it is a character of Christians who know God, to realize he is merciful and to never be far from the hope of his mercy, to ask his mercy is not to go against his will. To accept his will when we find it is important. To continue to cry and fast and petition after the fact is like arguing with God. I don't see a contradiction in that.
I don't think there is any good or bad way to mourn. Some people need to be alone, some need to talk. Neither is disrespectful. Let those who need to talk, talk and those who need to be alone, be alone.
I know when I die I will close my eyes here and open them in another place. I have a beautiful little place by the sea there, and when I die I will awaken there, I don't know much beyond that but that I know. I don't fear death, and I do not care what happens to my empty shell when I die, I would like to be cremated. The idea of decaying grosses me out, and God is more than able to gather my molecules back from the four winds when and if he needs to. My software is eternal and safely in his hands, he can build me a new box later. But I am not running headlong into death, knowing that it leads to a good place. The fact that I am here is God's doing, my life is not my own and it is not mine to take. That is the thing that non believers don't know. They labor under the misunderstanding that they own their lives. We don't. I would love to go home but as long as I am here, my job isn't done. To take it or hasten it artificially is like stealing from God. It is also an act of rebellion, in my estimation one of the biggest you can do, sort of the ultimate temper tantrum. That's not to deny the true suffering that some people have, that leads them to suicide. I don't know if the enemy can have free reign with someone who has not accepted Christ into their life, but I know that the scriptures say that God will not lead us into temptation without also giving us a way through, he won't put us through more than we can handle without giving us means to deal with it.
I don't want to be in pain, I hate pain. If I am in the process of dying, I don't want to have my life prolonged unnaturally. I don't consider food and water to be life prolonging any more than I consider air to be life prolonging. If I am dying anyway the food won't keep me alive, my body won't assimilate it. I know that. People like Terri aren't terminal. She wasn't dying anyway. That is what hospice is supposed to do. Everyine who responds to the situation with anecdotal information about dying family members is talking about dying people. Terri wasn't dying. She was killed. I don't want to be killed. It seems pretty simple to me. If I am an empty shell, so be it. My spirit might be gone, and if it is, my body will follow. If it doesn't, I am in there somewhere. I may be asleep in there and if I am, it's no torture, don't think I would be miserable. It's probably the first really good sleep I get. Morphine doesn't kill people that aren't already dying. Morphine is used for more than pain. It's used to help with breathing difficulty too, and with anxiety, it's a CNS depressant. Some poeple say they killed her with morphine. Please don't say that, it's not true. It's a misinformed opinion.
Valuing life that isn't productive or useful is not a crime, it is a value. I believe that no life can be judged unworthy. We can't compare one life to another, and say this one matters and this one doesn't. To do so is fundamentally flawed. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In God's eyes, lying is no better or worse than murder, sin is sin. When we try to make the point that some people deserve less value than others because of their acts, we fall into that values judgement. God doesn't do that. Each life is precious, and while he mourns over that harm we may have caused he still loves that person. His greatest hope, I believe , is that the sinner will turn from their ways and ask forgiveness. We are responsible for our own actions, we should be held up to the law of the land, and pay that price, in the physical world. It's the spiritual harm our sins do that God sees and grieves him. Our value is not diminished in his eyes. He already knows we sin (that's why Jesus did what he did), it's how we respond to sin that makes the difference.
The eternal price has been paid, our value is not dependent upon our actions, it is inherent. Even someone who is in a brain dead state has inherent value. If for no other reason than to give us a chance to care for someone who can in no way repay us. The poor you will have with you always, Jesus said. There's another chance to help. The fact that these things exist is not evidence of a masochistic God who hurts people just to give others that chance to help them, it is evidence of a fallen world, and a God who can pull meaning and purpose out of the most heinous circumstance.
posted by madmom at 11:06 AM
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