Sometimes we open our
book of life and some of its pages are blank and we put words of opportunities,
courage, faith and confidence on them ourselves to inspire us. When we scan the
pages, we cherish the wonderful memories and we also remember and honor our
loved ones who have gone before us; we become aware of our own mortality which
could lead us to wake up and live an authentic and meaningful life.
A useless life is an early
death. To live defeated and dishonored is to die every day. |
Many of the lessons we
learn when we think of our mortality could only be derived through the things we
experience and sometimes suffer. God expects and trusts us to face temporary
mortal adversity, so we could learn what we need to learn and ultimately become
what we are to become in eternity.
No one wants to die.
Even people who want to go to heaven do not want to die to get there. And yet
death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is,
as it should be, because death is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to
make way for the new.
The fear of death
follows from the fear of life. Dying is nothing to fear. It can be the most
wonderful experience of our life depending on how we have lived. What we have
done for ourselves alone dies with us; however, what we have done for others and
the world remains and is immortal. Death is not the greatest loss in life; it is
what dies inside us while we live.
I have learned that
death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its
cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where we continue
to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow. For those who seek
to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values
of life can originate from the thought and study of death.
It's only when we
truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth and that we have
no way of knowing when our time is up, that we will then begin to live each day
to the fullest, as if it were the only one we had.
I have also learned
that there is no joy without hardship. If not for death, would we appreciate
life? If not for hate, would we know that our ultimate goal is love? We can
either hold on to negativity, look for someone or something to blame, or we can
choose to heal and keep on loving. Those who learned to know death, rather than
to fear and fight it, could become our teachers about life.
By Tim Pedrosa
The Lord is well
aware of our mortality. He knows our weaknesses. He understands the
challenges of our everyday lives. He has great empathy for the
temptations of earthly appetites and passions.
- Joseph
B. Wirthlin |
Tim
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