Screwtape - Senior Demon
I read this line and I realize I live that same bad theology. Is this the natural trap of being a finite being. I guess so.
I saw a friend of mine recently give way to the disease of cancer. He was young. He left three young kids and a wife behind. That to me when looking at it holds little hope. It only looks like pain to me, And is pain not of the evil one? So how can death not be a prime evil? Because death is the entrance into eternal life. Why is this such a hard thing to live? For my own life I can only answer this way. When it is the hardest to live is when I have little connection to the presence of God in my life. Without God's presence we only have what is this side of heaven. My ability to live death as entrance to eternal life is if I am experiencing life itself. Not the illusion of life but the life that is delivered by the presence of Christ.
This does not remove pain but does give it perspective. Now sorrow is for my gain in that it leads my heart to the next chapter, and that is heaven. The best part is that I can begin living it now. For me that is worship. When I get in that place where all that is left is God. That presence lifts me and fills me and let's me walk back out into another day now with purpose. That purpose is for others to experience that same thing.
So what are those moments of worship?
- Scripture that invites me into another world.
- Community worship experiences where the bigness of God engulfs me.
- Moments of perspective when God rectories something for me that reminds me of his presence.
- Moments of community when the connectivity of the relationships around me have me experiencing the things of Christ like acceptance, grace, unconditional love.
What about you? What are the moments that make death a less evil concept and more a hopeful moment?
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