I've been thinking about death a lot lately. It seems I know a lot of people that are either being diagnosed, fear being diagnosed, or are having unusual symptoms that need to be checked out. Also, with my mother-in-law's mini-stroke on Christmas Day and even the recent death of someone we went to church with in Indy...it seems I've been thinking about this more than usual.
Here's my dilemma: How do I pray for someone that may be dying? And even if they aren't dying, how do I pray for someone that has lived a full life, raised their children, knows their Savior and has just had a sudden onset of disease...serious disease?
The thing this world and our churches have taught us is to pray for healing...and pray confidently. This I can do and have done many times over the years. I won't even allow myself to pray the usual, "Lord, if it's Your will, then please heal them." To me...this always felt like I was hedging my bets....sort of the mentality of, "well...if they don't pull through...then it must not have been His will". This for me, just paints a pretty patina on the fact that I never really believed He could heal the person to begin with.
But as I've followed more than a few journeys with cancer and illness through internet blogs and Facebook postings, the thought that keeps coming back to me is this: "Maybe I shouldn't be praying for their healing...because that's really not the best thing."
What? "Not the best thing?" Where is this coming from?
Our culture and everything in it screams that life...the good life...healthy, happy and whole...is all there is to a life worth living. But that's not what God's Word teaches. In fact, we are taught that we'll never be healthy, happy and anywhere near whole until we close our eyes here and open them to see our Savior. Isn't that what we should all be praying and longing for? To live a life that has been so well lived, so rich in God's goodness that to exhale here and to inhale Heaven's mercy is as natural as going to sleep...that is my goal.
I've definitely become more Heaven minded...eternity minded...in the last year. Not coincidentally, at the same time I know at least a dozen families that have lost people that were dear to and now much missed by them. So I find myself praying more for the families...for their comfort, healing, dealing with regrets of things left undone and unsaid...and that sometime very soon they'll realize that these "undone" items aren't lost forever...they're just being put on pause for now.
I can't even count how many times I've thought and said in the last year, "I'm just ready." And I am. I can't imagine anything in this life offering me something better than being with my Savior and the Lover of my soul. It's not an obsession with death....it's an obsession with reality...that we all die and since Jesus has paid for my ticket, this journey is sort of like getting all the work done around the house before I leave. Except this time...it's only a one-way ticket. And I'm okay with that.
I hope I don't sound calloused and I would never minimize anyone's grief or pain. I just know that for the redeemed, once they've thrown off this mortal shell...there is no more grief or pain. Therefore, when I pray for God to use His power to perform a miracle that is for the very best of the one who is suffering...I believe that when they close their eyes here and open them to see Jesus...my prayer has been answered.
Amen!
Here's my dilemma: How do I pray for someone that may be dying? And even if they aren't dying, how do I pray for someone that has lived a full life, raised their children, knows their Savior and has just had a sudden onset of disease...serious disease?
The thing this world and our churches have taught us is to pray for healing...and pray confidently. This I can do and have done many times over the years. I won't even allow myself to pray the usual, "Lord, if it's Your will, then please heal them." To me...this always felt like I was hedging my bets....sort of the mentality of, "well...if they don't pull through...then it must not have been His will". This for me, just paints a pretty patina on the fact that I never really believed He could heal the person to begin with.
But as I've followed more than a few journeys with cancer and illness through internet blogs and Facebook postings, the thought that keeps coming back to me is this: "Maybe I shouldn't be praying for their healing...because that's really not the best thing."
What? "Not the best thing?" Where is this coming from?
Our culture and everything in it screams that life...the good life...healthy, happy and whole...is all there is to a life worth living. But that's not what God's Word teaches. In fact, we are taught that we'll never be healthy, happy and anywhere near whole until we close our eyes here and open them to see our Savior. Isn't that what we should all be praying and longing for? To live a life that has been so well lived, so rich in God's goodness that to exhale here and to inhale Heaven's mercy is as natural as going to sleep...that is my goal.
I've definitely become more Heaven minded...eternity minded...in the last year. Not coincidentally, at the same time I know at least a dozen families that have lost people that were dear to and now much missed by them. So I find myself praying more for the families...for their comfort, healing, dealing with regrets of things left undone and unsaid...and that sometime very soon they'll realize that these "undone" items aren't lost forever...they're just being put on pause for now.
I can't even count how many times I've thought and said in the last year, "I'm just ready." And I am. I can't imagine anything in this life offering me something better than being with my Savior and the Lover of my soul. It's not an obsession with death....it's an obsession with reality...that we all die and since Jesus has paid for my ticket, this journey is sort of like getting all the work done around the house before I leave. Except this time...it's only a one-way ticket. And I'm okay with that.
I hope I don't sound calloused and I would never minimize anyone's grief or pain. I just know that for the redeemed, once they've thrown off this mortal shell...there is no more grief or pain. Therefore, when I pray for God to use His power to perform a miracle that is for the very best of the one who is suffering...I believe that when they close their eyes here and open them to see Jesus...my prayer has been answered.
Amen!
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