11 Jul 2009
Life after death or just life?
I have been thinking about this topic here and there just recently. Haven’t dwelled too much on it, but it has been something in the back of my mind for a little while. Basically, I have been thinking about what happens when people die.
Before I share my thoughts on this, I would like you to know that, to put things quite honestly, I am a faithless person. By that, I mean I don’t really follow any sort of religion… I just sort of live life as it is and nothing more. Maybe there’s a religion that believes in that and I just don’t know it, but I digress.
Nevertheless, here are my thoughts:
What if, when we die, there isn’t any sort of afterlife? Maybe there is just life, and life only. For example, if a person were to die, then that would be it. They would just be dead, and nothing more. Their “soul” would not live on in some other world or life. The person’s brain would cease to function and, to that person, it would be as if they never existed. They would be nothing. Of course, their body would still be on the Earth, but if it were you, well, you would not be you. Do you remember life before you were born? Larry King actually came up with an interesting point on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. He mentioned to Conan that, once he dies, he would like to be cryogenically frozen so that if some sort of pill that cures heart disease were to ever be discovered, that pill could be placed in his body and, in essence, he could be brought back to life. Sure, it might seem a little far-fetched. However, you never know if something like that could happen, even if it is well over a thousand years from now.
I guess you could say that I am sort of dwelling on what I think is physically possible. Hell, maybe the reason the universe/earth/life exists today is simply just because it does exist. It was just always there. Maybe I am un-educated and just don’t realize that people have proven otherwise, but you never know.
If you have read this, feel free to post a comment and share your thoughts as well!
This may give you some options to consider on life:
Rick Warren
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife Kay, now having cancer and him having ‘wealth’ from his book sales of the “Purpose Driven Life”. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body– but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act – the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness..
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys – you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something challenging in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something challenging that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for..
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems: If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.’ But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease..
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation..
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfil a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do.
That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
If you do not pass this information on, nothing will happen. But it will just be nice to pass it on to a friend….just like I have done.
James Last
January 8th, 2010 at 9:41 ampermalink