Bad family news
03-26-2019, 07:06 PM
That was very raw, Roosh. I hope you are doing well one year on from her death. Reading the eulogy got me thinking about death in general and how badly we handle it. The modern West has a very poor relationship with death. We spend our lives in a state of such ease and material super-abundance that death feels very remote, the way we might think of an enemy in a distant land. But this state is entirely unique in human history. Because for almost every human who ever lived prior to just a couple generations ago, death was far from remote. It was the enemy at the gates, with whom our ancestors were very familiar. In the past it was impossible to hide from death the way we do now, simply because it was so much more common and unpredictable. It was not unusual for perfectly healthy people to drop dead in under a week from things we take for granted today, like infections. As a consequence people were forced to deal with death much more directly, and almost everyone in the past had the experience of relatives or close family friends dying unexpectedly by the time they reached adulthood.
The proximity of death forces us to look at life differently. The very fact that death is now such a remote phenomenon is, I believe, one of the driving factors behind the disintegration of Western culture. When people forget about death they lose a crucial aspect of what it means to be human, or at least what it means to be an adult. Because in a state of nature only small children are insulated, however briefly, from the cold reality of death. To maintain a distance from death for one's whole life is to, essentially, remain in a childlike state of delusion. Facing death forces us to be serious, and to look at life and determine what exactly are the things that really matter. Because facing death makes us realize that this strange, tragic and wonderful thing we call life has no guarantees attached to it, and could end at any moment.
Death also forces us to confront the infinite void that awaits us on the other side. How can we ignore the fact that every - literally every society that has ever existed on this planet has had some form of religion? How can we be so quick to banish God to the rubbish bin simply because we've made great strides in science and medicine? It's the height of foolishness and arrogance. We have conquered nothing, for all our knowledge and mastery of the physical world at best we can only delay the inevitable. Death awaits us all and will have the final say.
In the Bible we read that death entered the world as a product of man's sin. Human beings, created in the image of God, became alienated from their creator due to an act of willful rebellion. What had been perfect was corrupted, what was created to partake of the divine essence was reduced to a bag of decaying flesh. From that moment on the entirety of man's existence on the planet has been defined by death. We are all born into this world condemned. We live our entire lives knowing we are under sentence of death, and that we have no escape. Death is the great equalizer and leveler, it cares nothing of fame or riches or beauty or kindness. It takes everyone.
For me personally, this is why the Christian gospel speaks so powerfully. It recognizes the all-encompassing power of death over man and offers a way out. It is not a coincidence that the greatest miracle God chose to demonstrate the deity of Christ was to raise him from the dead. It was the most powerful statement that could be made, and the one that most clearly accorded with Christ's message: that he came to save us from death. The fact that everything in this world is temporary and passing away by necessity points us toward the eternal. But death stands in the way, so we turn back and prefer to live in denial. But in Christ we need not fear death, for the victory has been won. He has defeated death, and those who are in him have been redeemed from the curse of sin. In the face of death, there is hope.
John 11:25 - Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Revelation 21:4-7 - And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
[size=8pt]"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”[/size] [size=7pt] - Romans 8:18[/size]