Death has incredibly important lessons to teach us, but some of us wait until we are dying to learn them, if we learn them at all. In his book, The Untethered Soul, Michael Singer writes:

“While someone could tell you that you are not your body, death shows you. While someone could remind you of the insignificance of the things that you cling to, death takes them all away in a second. While people can teach you that men and women of all races are equal and that there is no difference between the rich and the poor, death instantly makes us all the same.”

Singer suggests that we use death to help us learn now, while we are alive. For example, if you are jealous or envious, try imagining your next breath will be your last. What will happen then? What will your envy or jealousy gain you (or anyone else) other than the loss of what could have been a beautiful moment of life – in fact, your last moment?

He asks what would happen if an angel appeared to us and told us that we would not wake up tomorrow morning; today will be our last day. How would we treat the people in our lives? Take them for granted? Hold petty grudges? Ignore them? Criticize and complain? Or would we reach out to them, relish the time we have with them, make peace with them. How much love would we show them in those moments we have with them? What would really be important to us and to the people in our lives? What would matter?

Why wait for a terminal diagnosis or a near death episode to live that way? Why not seek to commune with death now, not as a feared enemy to be worried about, ignored, or run from, but as a friend, a counselor, a part of the natural order. Why are sunsets beautiful only if they are not our own?

Singer writes, “What is it that won’t let us live our lives? What is inside of us that is so afraid that it keeps us from just enjoying life? This part of us is so busy trying to make sure the next thing goes right that we can’t just be here now and live life. All the while, death is watching our footsteps. Don’t you want to live before death comes? You’re probably not going to get a warning. Very few people are told when they’re going to die.”

Perhaps you are living your life such that nothing would change if you knew you only had a week, a month or a year left. In my congregation, some folks know they have limited time and the rest of us are reminded of it as beloved brothers and sisters in Christ die. But, even knowing this, how do we live our lives? What gets in our way? What keeps us from living the way the clear knowledge of our impinging death might free us to live? And what is the way to live, knowing that everything can change in a breath and we and the world around us will return to dust?

I believe the Bible has much to say about how to live here, today and now. And I don’t think the Bible’s advise for how to live now is motivated by fear over where we will end up after that last breath. “Eat drink and be merry” did not come from Shakespeare, it came from the Bible. Surprised? What advice does the New Testament and Jesus offer most often? “Do not be afraid.” The Bible’s advice, as I am coming to understand it, for how to live here and now, will be covered in Part 3 of Lessons from Death.

In the mean time, please read James 4:13-17, and remember: God loves you unconditionally, right this very moment and with every breath you take from first to last.

Mike

Today’s reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+4%3A+13-17&version=NRSV