Taking the Sting Out of Death

Death is something that we all have to deal with.  We will be forced to deal with the death of someone we love and we will ultimately have to deal with our own death.   Many of us spend our entire lives fearing death.  It drives us to take better care of ourselves, it drives us to avoid dangerous activities, and it drives us to try to get as much done as possible.  Death is an unavoidable fact of life.  That doesn’t mean that we should not try to take care of ourselves, avoid dangers, or try to do as much with our lives as we can, but we have to make peace with the fact that we are going to be touched by death.  

For those of us who believe in God and have faith that there is more beyond this life, death is a little less frightening.  However, many of us still fear it, not only for ourselves, but also for the people we love.  We have all lost someone to death, and often we cannot understand why we had to lose the person we love.  The thing that we all need to remember even when we are facing a death is that God has a plan.  Like many of God’s plans, it is often difficult for us to understand why He chooses to do what He does.  The thing is, all of us have been allotted a certain amount of time on this earth.  Every living thing will eventually die.  Each person’s life span is different.  Some people are meant to live for many, many years and some are meant to live for only a day or even hours.  It is natural for us to question God’s judgement when we deal with the death of a loved one; however, it is very important for us to remember that God has a plan. Even if we cannot fully understand it at the time, God can give us peace even when we lose someone close to us.   

Even when we can have peace over the death of a loved one, we find ourselves mourning the person and missing him or her.  That is very natural and normal, but we have to remember that death is not final.  It is not the end of anything; it is actually just the beginning.  Heaven is a very real place.  It is full of the people we love.  They are beyond happy, and they are content and fulfilled.  All of the struggles they faced on this earth are behind them, and they have found the joy that we all seek.  Not only are they filled with joy, but they will be waiting for us when it is our turn to experience eternity.  I believe that we will know each other in Heaven, and we will spend eternity with the people we love and we will never be apart again.  

We use this knowledge to bring us comfort when people die, but many times we forget it when we experience the loss of a loved one.  I am not saying that we should not mourn someone who dies, but we have to have faith that they are truly in a better place and that we will see them again.  God has promised us an eternity of joy and peace, and we can all receive that.  God’s promise of eternal life truly does take the sting out of death.  

When dealing with death we must have faith.  It sounds simple, yet many of us struggle with it every day.  We have to put our trust in God and His promises to us.  We have to believe that God is truly an awesome God and that He can give us peace, even when we are experiencing the death of a loved one.  We have to allow Him to be in control and we have to let Him guide our path.  If we can do this, we will have a newfound peace and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~