Your life will end. Every thing that you have done or have left undone will be left behind and your very soul will leave your body. The body that has carried you. The body that you know so well. Your body of twelve years or eighty years. Perhaps a prime body of eighteen. The body that is full of scars and muscles. The body that is bone tired or fit and fast. The body that is pregnant. The body that has seen the sun rise and fall so many times. That body will decay. Your teeth will fall out and clatter on the floor and you will be standing there mouth agape. At the same time you will notice the skin sag and you’ll not be such hot stuff anymore. Maybe not. Maybe you’ll be strutting your stuff when the lights go dim. Who will see your impressive body then? Your workouts and toning will be for naught. Forget about showering or bathing because the soaps and bodywash are no match for the death stench. Forget about changing the sheets on your bed. You won’t need those where you are going. Forget all the comforts you know. The coffee, the beer, the wine and cheese have all gone to waste. Landfill material. You. Will. Die.
But how will you die?
Will you follow in the footsteps of so many who have gone before you? Will you be as the chaff driven away by the wind? Will your life end in a flash like a North Dakota grass fire? After your life has been crawling along so slowly did you expect an abrupt end? You came into the world naked and you will leave just the same. We really are all equal at the end of the day because we all end up horizontal.
Your life will end.
There is another way. This way involves another death though and surprisingly it comes before the life slips away from your earthly home. Are you scared of death? Don’t be. For this first death is actually the second birth. “How can we be born again?” is actually a fair question but I don’t go in much for fair questions and that is because the answer is not fair. The answer to this first death and second birth is the wind. The wind blows where it will. You will not see it, you will not understand where it comes from. But you will hear it. And then you will be destroyed. You will die. This will be a death by water. I already told you not to fear death. Why? Because this first death brings about a glorious resurrection. After you come sputtering out of the water and gasping for air, your lungs will be filled with the sweetest oxygen that you have ever experienced. You will get more enjoyment out of your body than you ever thought possible. You will be on fire and your smoke will rise to the heavens and it will be a pleasing smell. You will not be the only one though. No. This earth will be filled with 8 billion plus little fires. All of them shining. All of them sending smoke to heaven. Yes, all of you will die. But how will you die?
Joshua Dockter – June 9, 2024
