Image by OakleyOriginals via Flickr
DISCLAIMER: This blog entry will cause readers to think. Read at your own risk.
We’re all terminal. No one is going to make it out of this life, alive.
We’re all dying. Some of us realize that. Some deny it. Some ignore it. It doesn’t change anything. It’s still happening.
None of us, regardless of age, are promised tomorrow. As a matter of fact, we are unable to see even a few seconds into our future. No one knows for sure what is going to happen to them even 5 seconds from now. We tend to forget that. It’s easier that way.
Now, at this point I can pretty much guarantee, many people reading my blog are scratching their heads and wondering what in the world is going on? I’m usually an upbeat writer. Even funny on some occasions. Why the death talk? It’s depressing. Not sure if I want to hear this…..
Well, stick around. Hear me out. It will be worth it. I promise.
I’ve met death, up close and personal. On more than one occasion.
As a five year old, I was visiting with my cousin, when my uncle (his dad) died. I actually have memories of that. As a freshman in high school I lost a good friend, from my church youth group. He died on Christmas Day 1982. I lost all my grandparents by my senior year in college. In 2000, after a year and a half of illness, my first husband died, leaving me a widow at 32, as well as a single parent. Not a year and a half later my father, in his desperation, took his own life. Then there are all the deaths of relatives, co-workers, acquaintances, and other national tragedies, such as 9/11. In 2005, I remarried. He was also widowed with young children. So, he understood.
Dealing with death, or writing about death…always makes me think. How can it not? After all one day it will happen to me.
My husband and I facilitate a GriefShare group at our church. It is a support group for others that have had to face the death of someone they loved. It’s a group that is needed…because sometimes people who have seen the act of dying, up close…need to talk about it. It helps. It heals.
Yesterday a friend asked for prayer. A young family that she goes to church with, just found out that the mommy, the wife, was in the late stages of aggressive cancer. She had no idea until she was told by the doctor that she only had a few weeks to live. A few WEEKS to live. My heart hurts for her. For her husband. For her children. For her family. For her friends. Death is never easy…and in most cases comes to the party, uninvited.
As I was mulling these thoughts over in my head…and my heart…a video that I first saw last year, came to mind.
The woman on the video is Rachel.
It was taped in March of 2009.
Rachel was a wife.
A mom.
She was 37 years old.
And she was dying.
Her body was riddled with very painful cancer.
At the time of this video, she knew her time on this earth was short.
And yet she had a message to tell.
My hope is that you, my readers, will take the time to watch her video.
The video is long, about 50 minutes.
But 50 minutes is just a drop of water in the ocean of eternity.
It is one of those life changing videos.
The kind of video that you might not get to see again. So, grab the opportunity.
It’s profound.
So watch it.
You’ll probably cry.
That’s okay.
Rachel died about 4 months after this video was taped.
She said, not to worry. She’s with the Lord.
And she is now more alive than she ever was here on earth…….
http://deathisnotdying.com/fullvideo/
It Just Dawned On Me 