Good Planning

We had a good time at church last night, where we are studying a Max Lucado book, Come Thirsty. Lucado is not one of my favorite authors, but the book facilitates some discussions and those have been good. Although, we didn’t get around to discussing all of the relevant Bible verses on the subject of our study that night; death. I noted that death seems to be a very fascinating subject for Christians and that there was no lack of enthusiasm for the sharing of stories concerning death and how it had affected us. The consensus was that death for ourselves holds no fear, but we really disliked the “loss” of others caused by death. Despite our knowledge that those we had loved had gone on to a far better place, we could all agree that we missed them and that there seemed to be no easy answer as to how to manage grief.

As for myself, I shared a conversation I had this past weekend with Jill. Her father’s death had been very sudden and that had left a lot of things unsaid between them. Not a good situation. And so I had told her of my plans for my own death. In my ideal scenario, I would have time before I died to visit and talk to all whom I loved. I would have time to share my joy at this impending event in our lives. At the same time, I would ask for forgiveness for my past mistakes. In my plan, it’s all about me…Now, in life that is not a good thing. But in death, it’s certainly understandable. (Count the number of times I used “Me, “my” and “I” in the paragraphs above. Shame on you, Steve!)