Death, C.S.Lewis and you

Below you will see some thoughts from friends from different parts of the world and thoughts from our emails during our time in Tucson.

I vividly remember the experience of death on campus during Melanie and my time at the University of Arizona. In October 2002, a student from the nursing school shot and killed three instructors and himself. It gripped the campus. I remember talking with fellow students in class in the week it happened. I shared about the different reaction of nursing students as against those who were on 'main campus'. The distance is only 1/4 of a mile, one major road separates the nursing school from the main campus. That was enough. Like the return to 'normal' life so quickly after 9-11, it's easy to distance ourselves from suffering. Literally within hours (perhaps less), people acted as if nothing had ever happened.

The response of a fellow student will never leave my memory: "Well, you don't want to think about it too much - you'd spend your whole life contemplating your own mortality".

While I was and am not saying that "contemplating your own mortality" should be the focus of our lives, the fragility of life MUST convict us of the truly important things in life and allow the frivolous to take their rightful place in the background.

The link is somewhat dubious, but these musings make me think of at least one life change we could all prayerfully consider. From C.S.Lewis's 'The Weight of Glory':
It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter [or the death that proceeds it]; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations...There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal...But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.


Thoughts from you and me...

South African:
This is the verse of the hymn that gets sung the least, which is weird, because I think it's the best for comforting the afflicted. "Be still, my soul, when dearest friends depart;And all is darkened in the veil of tears;Then shall thou better know His love, His heart,Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repayfrom His own fullness all He takes away."The other verses of the hymn are awesome, too.

Tasmanian:
I think that when death suddenly becomes a close reality, it certainly helps to bring ourselves back into perspective.

American:
"The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth." (Ps.145:18) We seek out God more when we experience difficulties and it's comforting to know that God is continually present. The omnipresence of God should motivate us to cling to Him more fervently.

Another excerpt from my emails about Mel's Dad:
Praise God for the body of Christ. We have been overwhelmed by the support of brothers and sisters from DC and Tucson (and beyond). Every call, email message, and prayer has been appreciated – we love you guys so much and are so thankful for God blessing us with so many faithful friends (some of whom happen to be family too!)

God has encouraged us through the love exhibited by his body. We have seen, more intimately than we have for a long time, the proper working of each part of the body "so that it builds itself up in love" (Eph 4:16). The opening passage of 2 Corinthians has often been an encouragement to us:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God…He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 10-11