Bill White’s sermon last Sunday that launched our new series at church called “The Power of Now” resonated deeply with me. Preaching on Jesus’ story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, Bill confronted our lack of awareness as Americans about the fact of our own death – and the consequences of getting it wrong that heaven and hell are real.
Needless to say, the fact of death has become prominent for Susan and our family over the past 9 months. I asked Susan how she felt about the message on Sunday. She said because of what’s happened to her, she’s accepted the idea of her dying and is at peace with it. That’s a confidence that comes from the Living God alone. It’s priceless, worth far more than ordinary wealth. Imagine being a billionaire and knowing you’re going to die next week. All your money, the American Dream you’ve worked decades to acquire, the desirability of access and privilege that draws people to notice you and treat you with high esteem – it’s all worthless now if you want peace in dying apart from God. Rich and poor alike are laid in the dirt when they die, each body as lifeless as the other. Death is the great equalizer – and the human death rate is still 100%.
I’m reading a book called “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23” in which a 20th Century shepherd helps clarify the imagery found in the Bible. In the “Shadow of Death” chapter I read this week, he says:
The disappointments, the frustrations, the discouragements, the dilemmas, the
dark, difficult days, though they be shadowed valleys, need not be disasters.
They can be the road to higher ground in our walk with God.
After all when we pause to think about it a moment, we must realize that even our modern mountain highways follow the valleys to reach the summit of the passes they traverse. Similarly the ways of God lead upward through the valleys of our lives. Again and again I remind myself, “O God, this seems terribly tough, but I know for a
fact that in the end it will prove to be the easiest and gentlest way to get me
onto higher ground.” Then when I thank Him for the difficult things, the dark
days, I discover that He is there with me in my distress. At that point my
panic, my fear, my misgivings give way to calm and quiet confidence in His care.
Somehow, in a serene and quiet way I am assured all will turn out well for my
best because He is with me in the valley and things are under His control.
To come to this conviction in the Christian life is to have entered into an
attitude of quiet acceptance of every adversity. It is to have moved onto higher
ground with God. Knowing Him in this new and intimate manner makes life much
more bearable than before.
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