Preparing for Death and Life

 

In all honesty, I am not sure whether preparing for death or life is more difficult, but I am sure that I (and all of us) need to prepare for both.  At the moment I tend to think life as that is where the uncertainties lie.  While death is an enemy that will one day be done away with, it does have a glorious end for the Christian.  I think we should all prepare for that.  Considering the possible outcomes of my surgery, that may be the easiest preparation. There is not the uncertainty for me that there is with what may be ahead with life.

 

Tomorrow I am scheduled to go in for major surgery to remove the large tumor on my adrenal gland.  Humanly speaking the outcome depends on how I come through surgery, how intact the tumor is when they remove it and then (down the road) how the second cancer behaves or misbehaves and how quickly the sarcoma returns.  I am so glad that I don’t have to depend on human predictions!  Whatever the case may be I rest the results in the hands of the One who has loved me before the foundation of the world.  As a dear friend emailed me, “We can take comfort knowing that the decisions we make medically do not extend or shorten our lives- they may affect the quality of our life but the time for our living will not be done until He accomplishes His purpose”

 

So, I have been preparing both to live and to die. 

 

Death is an enemy and dying is hard! We were not created to die. As I prepare for death, I have confidence that the best is yet to come. I find hope and peace in these verses.   

 

"But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him' – these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God" (1 Cor. 2:9 NRSV).

 

I know that my redeemer^[c lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another.  How my heart yearns within me! Job 19: 25-27

 

 

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

 “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15:54-57

 

 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39

 

 

As I prepare to go on living I am confident that God will give me grace. Jeremiah Burrough in   Jewel of Contentment quotes Luther in this comment,

 ‘The sea of God’s mercies should swallow up all our particular afflictions.’  Name any affliction that is upon you:  there is a sea of mercy to swallow it up.  If you pour a pailful of water on the floor of your house, it makes a great show, but if you throw it into the sea, there is no sign of it.  So, afflictions considered in themselves, we think are very great, but let them be considered with the sea of God’s mercies we enjoy, and then they are not so much, they are nothing in comparison.

 

Amy Carmichael, who suffered greatly, wrote,

“Joy, not suffering, is eternal….joy is given; sorrow is lent….It is lent to us for just a little while that we may use it for eternal purposes. Then it will taken away and everlasting joy will be our Father’s gift to us, and the Lord God will wipe away all tears from off all faces. (Isaiah 25:8)”

 

 

I ask prayer that the surgery would go well and that God might be pleased to bless me with more years to sing His praises on this earth. I especially ask you to pray with me that however much time I have on this earth that I will finish strong for God’s glory.