Fear of Death

If you have fear of death; crush it! Scream and yell at it until this fear fears you. There is no more sting of death for two-thirds of you. Your spirit is in the heavenly places with Christ. Your soul, God has promised not to leave in Sheol. And for the final third of you, your body; well, let me tell you a story about that.

I had never been knocked unconscious before. I'd always wondered how painful of a hit I would have to receive to get knocked out. Well when I was a sophomore in college I received that hit. Some thing I had feared and wondered at for years, occurred on a gritty muddy rugby field at Clemson University. Yet; for all my dreading – it was nothing! Nothing. Actually it was pleasurable. It was a blast! Sure, I got my teeth rattled, and I probably experienced more concentrated pain in that one moment than at any point in my life. But I have no memory of it! I can't for the life of me remember one fraction of pain. It was one of the most pleasurable moments of my life. There I was – exhausted, having expended every ounce of my energy for 30 or so straight minutes – constantly moving in one of the most grueling arduous sports known to man. I was sweaty, sucking breath, achy, and bloody in multiple places. As Clemson receives the ball and begins running towards our try-zone yet again, I realize it is my job to tackle this full grown man running at me at his highest speed – to make somewhere between 185 - 215 pounds of bone and muscle traveling at full sprint somehow stop dead in its tracks. The tackle I need to make is going to be painful – that is a given – but if it goes wrong, it could be excruciating. I go in for the tackle. And the fated and doomed hit occurs. Contact..... I'm told. The only thing I remember however is realizing with a sense of peace and utter tranquility that I felt like falling asleep right there in the middle of trampling cleats and hurling bodies. And then the next thing I remember – I woke up (about three minutes later) feeling refreshed and relaxed and without a care in the world. And I was staring into the eyes of a beautiful and caring Clemson sports trainer – as she was checking the pupils of my eyes. I spent the first few moments of waking lazily trying to figure out how things had gotten so right.

I imagine that moment will be a lot like my physical death in this world – except that I'll be staring into the eyes of my Husband, Redeemer, and God – Jesus Christ; with no recollection of the pain of death.

Death where is your sting?

Haha