Are you ready to die?

[Toad]

I've had this question pushed to the fore in recent years.

It's not really about readiness for me, it's acceptance. It will come when it will come and you have to accept that.

In the meantime, you try to do what you want to do and try to do what's right for  you and yours. Beyond that, why worry about it.

Curval, I'm certainly not afraid to die defending something worth dying to keep. I'm sure you'd stand between your children and mortal danger and not weigh the risk to yourself?

We all have our own list of things for which we'd be willing to die; I'm sure the lists differ.

[Seagoon]

Good question, and one that I often ask.

At one time in my life I will freely admit that I was not ready to die, nor in any condition to do so. In fact for much of my early life, while much of my reading concerned death (for instance, my favorite poets were the War Poets of the first world war like Wilfrid Owen and I read a lot of Nihilists and Existentialists whose work dwellt obsessively on death) I suppose I harbored a secret conviction that while other people might die, I never would.

In fact you might say that one of the many factors used by God in my conversion to Christianity was waking up to the fact that I was going to die, and having my eyes opened to see that I was not the altruistic and wonderful fellow that I told myself I was, and that if there was in fact a Holy God then I had nothing that might qualify me to enter into His heaven, quite the opposite actually.

Today, I am ready to die, in fact I can honestly say with Paul - "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." (Phil. 1:21-23) I am eager to be away from this world and present with the Lord but like Paul I know that I still have responsibilities here and people who depend upon me, so I am content to stay until the Lord decides my work here is finished.

I believe that John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress put it very well when he said that we are well advised to be preparing ourselves for death now while there is still time, rather than letting that visitor that will come for all men call upon us unprepared:

Bunyan wrote: "I say, be acquainted with the grave and death. The fool puts the evil day far away, but the wise man brings it nigh. Better be ready to die seven years before death comes, than want one day, one hour, one moment, one tear, one sorrowful sigh at the remembrance of the ill-spent life that I have lived. This, then, is my admonition to you; namely, that you know death, what it is, what it does when it comes. Also, that you consider well of the danger that death leaves that man in, to whom he comes before he is ready and prepared to be laid by it in the grave."

- SEAGOON

[Eagler]

if what I (and many others) believe is true, there is no death, just change

the thread should read:
"Are you ready to shed your shell?"

[68valu]

none of us are going to make it out of here alive. I just refuse to choose the time for myself to depart!!

[lukster]

Having loved ones on the other side makes death less unwelcome. One thing's for sure, ready or not, we are all going through that door.

[lukster]

Originally posted by Eagler
if what I (and many others) believe is true, there is no death, just change

the thread should read:
"Are you ready to shed your shell?"

Here's a poem I find very beautiful.

http://freespace.virgin.net/b.brunton/deathisnothing.html

[BTW]

Originally posted by lukster
Having loved ones on the other side makes death less unwelcome. One thing's for sure, ready or not, we are all going through that door.

I certainly believe this and that it creates a process of dieing. Of course death is sometimes swift and to the young and it seems unnatural, but I guess it only shows how little I understand. I remember the first time I heard George Harrison's song "The Art of Dieing " I felt the title was almost perverse. I was 17 or 18 at the time and saw no art or sense in death. Having parents and siblings die changes that I think. I can't even imagine the situation of having a child die as one person posted.

I guess the strangest thing is when you think how morbid the question is at first glance, its really a question about life. Its sad that western cultures seem to embrace death with denial, and that's not ethnocentric, but very true.

Or as Seagon posted "The fool puts the evil day far away, but the wise man brings it nigh."

[Gunthr]

a scene from the movie "The Perfect Storm" sticks in my head.  its where the fishing boat is upside down and 3 men are caught in a compartment that is filling up fast, rising to their chins, and death by drowning is imminent.  

One of the men says, just before his last breath or two, "This is gonna be rough on my little boy."


that is the one thing that gets me.  if you have kids, especially young kids, you kind of feel that you CAN'T die yet, and the thought of the little ones you would have to leave behind, their suffering/confusion/and longing for the parent is irreconcilable to me.  i just wouldn't be ready to die in that sense until my kids are adults.

[Halo]

Very true.  Later, after the kids have grown up and moved out, and you're retired from your career, every day is a bonus.

[BTW]

I agree and as absurd as it might sound, even pets keep people hanging on. Like "who's going to take care of my dog or cat (bird, lizard etc.) like I do?"

[cpxxx]

In 2002 if you had asked that question. I'd have said, 'Yes'. My life had reached a point where everything ceased to have any meaning and all my dreams and goals had crumbled into dust. I didn't see a future. At that point, providentially, I met my future wife.

Five years later, I sit here with my wriggling six week old son on my lap, making it very hard for me to type . I cannot imagine how I could have felt like that. I don't want to die at all now. So my goal is to prolong my life as much as possible to enjoy him growing up. I'm also aware that my Father lost his Father quite young and that scarred him.

Death has an attraction all of it's own. There are all the romantic associations of 'dying for your country' and 'dying for your family', as if death was simply another event in your life. The truth is that it's the final event in your life. I often wonder if people who commit suicide really realise that. Bad as their life is perceived to be, death has nothing to offer.

I stood at the grave of friend who died in a plane crash years ago (his fault), aged twenty seven. What struck me was the pointlessness of it all. But for one rash moment he would be at the peak of his life right now. Probably a Captain with an airline and married with several kids in a very nice house. But instead he lies in a hole in the ground.

No romance in that. No future either.