"100 per cent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased." C.S. Lewis
Death is a difficult subject to talk about. It's even more difficult to face, especially if you have no idea what is waiting "on the other side". It's a common belief that all good people go to heaven, while really bad people go to hell or some other not-so-nice place that's maybe not as terrible as hell. But if there's no certainty, the prospective can be quite terrifying.
In addition to an unknown destination after death, there's plenty of other things that make death hard to deal with. Death means separation; separation from loved ones, from things one enjoys and well...everything.
It also means suffering. Most people leave this life through pain and suffering. It is not often one just closes their eyes, breathes their last breath and is gone without experiencing some type of suffering. Even if one dies quickly in an accident, there can be terrifying moments just prior to that which make their dying experience anything but pleasant.
Several years ago, my first husband was diagnosed with a quickly metastasizing brain tumor and given only a few months to live. When I asked him if he was afraid to die he said, "No, I'm not afraid to die but I'm very afraid of the process." That made sense to me. He anticipated, with great joy, what awaited him on the other side of death but knew the road he must take to get there would be filled with great pain and suffering - and it was.
Separation, suffering and the great unknown of death make it understandable why people fear it so. Yet, God's Word tells us death is something we need not fear, not if we "live" right. How we live makes all the difference in how we die.
"If you live wrong, you can't die right." Billy Sunday
If one chooses to live this life, for and by one's self, without God, then by their own choice, when their life ends, the only source of power and strength they will have to draw upon is their own. Sadly, they will quickly discover their personal reservoir has nothing to offer them and worse, they have no ability on their own to get to heaven.
Jesus is the only way to heaven.
John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (God who is in Heaven) but through Me."
Once we know Jesus and have a relationship with God the Father through Him, we need not fear death any longer.
I Corinthians 15:55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
In other words, death no longer has the last say. For all Believers in Christ, death is not final. It is just a doorway to our real home, our ultimate destination, the place we were created for. In our eternal home, all suffering, sadness, pain and disease will end. We will experience joy and delight like we have never known. Death, then, can actually become something we anticipate rather than fear because of where it will take us.
Even the process of dying loses its terrifying grip when one walks that journey with God, rather than on their own.
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