The Enemy In The Corner

In the last 72 hours,  5 different Facebook contacts have written of the death of one of their close friends or loved ones.  In each case the friend or loved one was a believer.  Death is an insidious enemy, lurking in the corner and reaching out with an icy finger to touch our lives on an increasingly frequent basis as we grow older.  One day, it will reach out and claim each of us, apart from the return of the Lord Jesus to claim His own.

Culturally in this country, our attitude toward death is one of denial; we’d just as soon not talk about it.  When we must talk about it we are inclined to avoid the word and use terms such as “passed away” or even just the word “passed”.

I read recently that the vast majority of Americans fail to plan for their death in matters such as life insurance, wills, estate planning and other related matters.

Oddly, though, at the same time we have a national propensity for creating folk heroes of those who are dead.  Their images appear on our money, our postage stamps, in our toy stores and in all forms of our media.  In some sense, they “live on forever.”

The Scripture says, “it is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment”.   That statement from Hebrews 9.27 is filled with tones of certainty, finality, inevitability …   We may try to ignore it, deny it and avoid its reality but, we know it intuitively.  Experience confirms it.

Over long years of ministry as a Pastor, I had the opportunity to see first-hand and close up how different individuals faced death … that of friends and loved ones … and their own as well.  I’ve seen everything from un-controlled hysteria, detached stoicism, riotous celebration, and drunken defiance to calm and confident assurance.

My ambition (and yours as well, I hope) is to let the words of Frances Havergal frame my perspective on death: