• Death is around the corner with or without Covid-19. We have three to five times more chances of dying due to hypertension or cancer than this pandemic. We mourn and adapt but hopefully guided by healthy process and role models.
• Life and death is about suffering. We must understand that resurrection is the end goal. The end of the law and our wits is the hope in the redemptive power of someone other than ourselves.
• There is new life and body after our death! Look forward to it! Who knows, our special someone, who might have been equally broken, will resurrect together with us!

Death around the corner

We will be surrounded by death as we age, with or without Covid-19. I myself have lost my parents, a sibling, a number of friends and colleagues, and a host of neighbors from all walks of life. Death is daunting. And sadly, the frequency of that news can only escalate. Death lurks around. Hopefully it is not for us or our closest ones, any time soon.

Many will die three to five times more from cancer or hypertension than this pandemic. Then there are those other causes, natural or man-made, from earthquakes to violence, that we equally fear. There is no highlighting death now. It has been real since the beginning of time and it will be more gripping as we progress towards the end of time.

No choice but to adapt

Death is never a pleasant experience. We wail. We break. We erupt like a dam however quietly for some. But we do mourn – it is “involuntary” – whether that person close to us is good or bad. If good, we regret the end of a blissful relationship. If bad, we lose our hope of ever mending that broken part of our life.

The grief will burst from our subconscious despite our self-control. Our inner self will dictate the reaction to the new reality pain, prepared or not. We will probably ease along if we have grieving guidance. Otherwise, the trauma goes with us the rest of our life.

There is a mourning process. And the internet is replete with the details of that from denial to acceptance. How we look at death though will determine the way we go through the experiences. It will harden our heart like Pharaoh of Egypt if we resent it. But like King David, we will see the nuances of life and death if we are contrite. A parent never had to bring his kid to the grave yet he learnt to accept his sons’ deaths and tragedies.

No Brad Pitt Thriller

The Creator did not do a “Benjamin Button” for a reason. It would have been wonderful if we grow young and stronger instead of old and weaker! It is curious why He did not. We could have grown more self-sufficient and self-determined instead of being degraded.

Our life starts invincibly and mysteriously in terms of beauty, strength, and complexity. Any OB-Gyne or midwife will tell us how mesmerizing the birth of a child is. And parents well-remember the addicting scent of new borns. Eventually these “fragile” beings grow into full adults, and we are amazed how that happened in a flash!

Then death comes slowly knocking. An invincible force slows down a once vigorous youth and stout adulthood. Our muscles no longer respond quickly, our stamina shortens, our recovery time lengthens, and even our brain starts snapping connections. It is a decline from thereon with weakening muscles, susceptivity to disease, and onset of dementia.

Life Entails Suffering

We came to this earth in great pain! Heck, life’s full of pain! As we grow, no matter how shielded we are by our parents, we will be assaulted by all sorts of pain – emotional, physical, psychological, spiritual, self-inflicted, others inflicted – all painful one and the same!

We should be humbled and shattered when we have gone through enough trials and sufferings. What will it take to accept that we cannot stop aging with makeups and botox, disease with supplements, cancer with chemotherapy (even the latest mRNA technology), or death with cryogenics or denial?

God, after all, both in His declarations and in our own life experiences, had subjected us unto death and suffering. But why? Is He a sadist? It is for us to learn and pursue the keys of eternal life. What is birth and death if it will not end with being raised from the dead?

God has set eternity in our hearts. And He wants to unlock resurrection through the example of His Son’s sufferings eloquently explained by the Apostle Paul to us. There is no kidding nor compromise in his statements. We have to take heed if we even wish to have a chance!

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:10-11 (NIV).

The Hope at the End of our Wits

Life was meant to shatter our illusion of self-sufficiency and self-determination. Suffering is the main tool to develop that. And the outcome is supposed to be a pulverized soul with no remaining hope in its own strength or intelligence. But only a broken spirit pleasing and utterly dependent on God.

Even the law of Moses – the do-this-and-do-that so you will be upright – is so misunderstood. It was never meant to make us right. It was designed to show us that we, by ourselves, are never right. No wonder, the end of the law is a need for a Christ. But like a drowning person, we will never grasp that unless we first die through our trials.

The Great Architect…

God scripted life from beginning to end. That is the one that will comfort and assure us given our very own instabilities and the powers beyond us. Thus, He assured us that He is the Beginning and the End. Any sane mathematician will agree that we cannot foretell even a single part of the future if we do not dictate and control all the variables of life. Yet He did and dared anyone if there’s another capable one.

The heavens, with all of its 1×10²⁴ stars moving predictably and gloriously, tell us that someone must be that powerful. He can equally order all trillions cells to form again when our bodies decay. This goes beyond science because the numbers alone are beyond our grasp. That is why, the upright will live by faith, to be spiritual if we may, and not depend on our very finite mind.

His resurrection power was once displayed in Jesus Christ. He promised to do it again at the end of the age. But it is only for those of us who have been broken by suffering AND confessed how foolish to have thought that we are self-sufficient and self-determining!

And His Portal For Life

Death is only a portal. It is not the end. It only opens the next phase. There is indeed hope that, one, there is resurrection from the dead. If not, we are better off eating and drinking because tomorrow we die! The early followers of Christ suffered at the stakes and other despicable deaths because of that hope.

And two, resurrection does not depend on our accomplishment. Paradoxically, it is through our suffering and breaking, the emptying of our arrogance and “religiosity” that will please God to raise us. Or will the world and His coming heavenly kingdom better off leaving us in the grave?

A New Body and a New Life

Finally, there is indeed a new life to be granted for those who believe. It consist of a resurrected body whose eternal composition we will yet know but certainly is no longer subject to decay. It will also have a new heart that have been forged and sealed through suffering.

It forms that conviction unto death to give thanks on all circumstances. The Lord powerfully and lovingly scripted our lives – highlighted by our belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – and that we have no credit whatsoever in ourselves.

So if people around us are dying, let us cry for the temporary parting and sleeping. But let us not grieve without hope. If they died broken in sufferings and learnt to shift their hope to the Lord, then we might truly see each other again whether we all die of Covid-19 or not. We can declare death is not the most fatal if we have resurrection hopes in our hearts.

(Feature Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay)