Last Friday, we did two little surveys. We asked the cell members two questions relating to our mortality. Here are the general response to the two questions.
Q1: How would you wish to die?
Despite the question being a little morbid, our cell were rather enthusiastic in their reply. Almost 95% of the cell wish to die in their sleep. This is the best way to go - death by slumber. Only faith, one of our cell members, wishes to be raptured to join with Christ. For me, rapture would be ideal. But death by slumber bodes well for me too.
Nobody, naturally, wants to die a painful death. Cancer, diseases and organ failure are definitely no-go for all living souls. The hope is to die without pain, without debt and without despair. Most importantly, our dying moments should be spent with our loved ones. No cars, money or accolades can provide the comfort of a warm hand to touch, a listening ear to receive our last urgent instructions and an embrace of love and deep affection. Except, of course, if you love mahjong...
One of our cell members, jokingly, said that she doesn't mind dying while playing mahjong or dying while singing karaoke. Well, I guess you can say that there's no better way to die than to die while doing what you love.
Now, for the 2nd question.
Q2: If you can know when and how you are going to die, will you want to know?
Quite surprisingly, only Mark, Jasmine and Evangeline wanted to know. They answered that knowing would give them time to plan. At least, they reasoned, they could set things in order. Make a will. Take a vacation. Leave behind a legacy - in words and action. The knowledge would be empowering for them. It would give them a sense of control and a sense of urgency of purpose.
The rest of us rather not know. Annie even thought that such knowledge was unwholesome and should be rejected wholesale. For me, I am stuck in two minds about it. My first choice is to reject the knowledge. Knowing when I am going to die can be very scary. It is particularly scary when the time we have left in this world is short, very short, say, a few months or even one year. Especially in my current station in life - being a young father of two young children - having one year to live scares me to death!
I told the cell that I wish to live long enough to give my daughter away in marriage, carry my grandchildren in my arms and go for a long vacation with my wife after retirement. All these things cannot be done or experienced until I am about 60 to 70 years old. So, to die before that would be very depressing for me and to know in advance that I am going to die soon is even more depressing. So, for me, I'd rather live with uncertainty - turning my back on death for as long as I can - than to live with certainty and plan for my funeral while I countdown the minutes I have in this world.
However, wouldn't it be wonderful if we were told that we would die at a fruitful age of 80 on our king-size bed surrounded by our spouse, children, grandchildren, family members and close friends? This knowledge would be both a great relieve and empowering for the hearers. But the fear is that knowing this, we might take our avaliable time on earth for granted. Because we don't feel the imminency of death, we live carefreely and carelessly. Compare to someone who has only 1 year to live, a person with 40 years or more to live would tend to take things easy, invest less on things eternal and live aimlessly without focus, discipline and plan.
Well, on this point, Mark begs to differ. He admits to the cell that if he knew he had 40 years to go (and mind you, Mark is not 28 years old...he is much older), he would start to plan. He would leave a legacy for his children. He would build a financial nest for their future. He would do all things necessary for the present world and the world to come as if he had only 1 year to live. For Mark, knowing that you have 1 year or 40 years to live makes no difference in the way he will live his life, that is, he would live purposefully regardless of the length of time he has left. Note the operative word here is "knowing".
But the question I posed thereafter was: if that's the case, should it then make any difference if we know or don't know how long we will live if the answer would be that we will live for another 40 years? On the normal run of things, aren't most of us going to live to 70 or 80 years old regardless of whether we know it now or later. Put it in another way, should knowing that we will die 40 years later and not knowing but assuming we will die 40 years later it make any difference to how we live now?
Well, it shouldn't. We can all safely assume that we will live till 70 or maybe over. So, this assumption should be motivation enough for us to live purposefully now; planning and enjoying life along the journey.
So, in the end, I guess it is the fear of bad news (or for Annie, the suspicion of the source of such knowledge) that cause most of all to avoid knowing. Indeed, ignorance, on some things, is bliss.
But whether we know or don't know our date with destiny in advance, the bible has assured us about life and death. Many of us think that we are in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. In fact, the opposite is truer. We are in the land of the dying and going to the land of the living. We start to die from the first second we were born. In fact, our birth is the beginning of death.
But, as christians, death is only a transit from this world to another, a place of eternal reconciliation. Therefore, the knowledge of the time of death shouldn't scare us to death. If anything, we should embrace John 11:25 and live our life the way Jesus lived it. And the knowledge of the time of our death should not make any difference to how we live now (although Evangeline has a good point saying that it is often easier said than done).
"Jesus said...I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."
Any comments?
No comments:
Post a Comment