I’m not one to focus on doom and gloom…in fact, I tend to wear a pretty dark pair of rose-colored glasses in life but if I were to be honest for a moment I’d have to admit that everything in this world is dying. Everything is winding down. You, me, my garden, everything we build (roads, buildings, machines), the whole earth itself is digressing toward death isn’t it? There are those beautiful glimpses of life and beauty that we cling to, the moments that ’cause us to remember that despite the death of everything there is still something bigger, better, and worth celebrating happening. You can probably put those beautiful things into two categories (using the word ‘categories’ kind of cheapens it now doesn’t it?!): the pursuit of extending life despite death and the pursuit of things that transcend the trap of death.
Extending Life
I love gardening, I love the creation and planning process. I love that it creates fresh and healthy food for my table, I love that it redeems useless space around my yard and gives it purpose. And while inevitably my garden is on its way to death (some years sooner than later!) I spend great time and energy procuring as much life as possible along the way: and the life that is produced outweighs the pain of its eventual death. This same thing can be said of art, when taking a photograph aren’t we capturing a moment that has since died? The photo actually extends the life of that moment in a way that in older generations was not a possibility! I could go on and on about different ways that we find value, significance, meaning, joy, etc. in extending life in our world. It’s a beautiful thing and I think it’s part of the joy of being human together.
Transcending Death
The other way we experience life despite the death that so overruns our world is by pursuing things that actually transcend death itself. You know these things because they’re what cause so much pain when they’re missing, they’re what bring so much peace when they’re present, they’re what keep our eyes up when things suck. They’re things that resonate in a place so deep in our bodies that they either make you feel warm and fuzzy or they create tension and anger (depends on our baggage really). Compassion, grace, love, friendship, creativity forgiveness, kindness, mercy, affection, imagination…These things don’t just fight against death-they overcome it, they extend past it, they both precede death and they’ll be around after it.
Death is Temporary
The only thing that takes this stuff away is when death becomes such an overwhelming reality in our world that we forget or are blinded to its temporariness. When we forget that the dying world we live in is not the ultimate reality that we’re stuck with we forget about the transcendent moments, we forget about the joy that comes in fighting against death as we see it, we forget that death ain’t got no hold on us if we so choose! From my perspective (and what else am I writing here aside from that?) when Jesus chose to enter into our death-filled world, when he chose to experience death, and when he chose to provide an alternative to death (i.e. resurrection of our broken bodies and our broken world into a whole and complete creation where death is no longer a part of the picture), he invited us to live out of this truth: that death ain’t got nothing on us any more! At one point in the Bible it talks about how in defeating death Jesus has stripped the powers of death in our world…i.e. the fact that our world is constantly in a state of dying is no longer the reality for those who choose to live out of the alternative: life conquers (conquered) death.
Our world is in a constant state of death but that’s no longer the reality that I live my life out of (I hope!). My hope is that my life is consumed with life–because Jesus has invited me to do so and to miss out on this chance would be…well…to choose death…and who wants to do that?