Death and Pain (reflections on my Dad's recent passing)

Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself. – C.S. Lewis

The greatest tragedy is not suffering in itself, but a response in which we succumb to it and become the thing we hate. Thus we perpetuate suffering by our own hands rather than forming a united front against it. The fact is that when bad things happen (or in the midst of so much bad) we have a choice- we give in to the darkness and become the thing we hate, or we stand in the face of it. We stand holding high a banner of love and hope in the face of overwhelming odds. As a Tsunami wall of blackness comes crushing down over us proclaiming “join or die” we spit in it’s eye and boldly, confidently dare to live in such a way that is the opposite of what hurt us. We dare to proclaim truth in the face of the greatest lie.

This kind of courage and bravery would seem futile in the face of death and pain mainly because, as one Mumford and Sons song points out “death is just so full and man so small”. We all feel the fear of death and pain, and there was a time when death had the final word, but that time is over- Because God himself endured death through his son, whom he raised from the dead victor over death. We no longer have to be afraid, because God himself has gone before us and defeated our greatest enemy. The only stupidly simple thing we have to do is take him at his word and the historical evidence of his sons resurrection from the dead and put our faith in him. Once we do this, something that was important to Jesus(God’s son whom I keep referring to) was baptism, so we do that too- baptism is basically the act of dunking a persons whole body underwater and then bringing them back up... We believe that the old people we used to be are actually buried under the water and we come up a whole new person that will live forever because of Jesus. We have God’s guarantee of this because he puts his own spirit in us from this point on, so that we can be sure we’ll never be the same old dead selves again. Have you accepted God’s salvation for mankind? His victory over death? Because in case you were wondering, it is only because of Jesus that we are able to stand gloriously stubborn in the face of death and pain.

I write this in light of my Dad and lifelong best friend Randy Moskaluk having died on Memorial day just 11 short days ago. Have you chosen to put your faith in Jesus and what he’s done for you? My Dad did, and do you know what one of the first things that happened to me on the day of his death was? That spirit of God I mentioned ealrier that he puts in us when we start our new lives with him (aka the Holy Spirit) filled me with overwhelming peace that my Dad was ok, that my Dad was in God’s arms that very moment. Do you have that? Do your kids have that? I’ve heard it said “I wish I could have faith like you but I can’t”- but I want you to see the reality is that there is no bigger copout than that, because you can. It’s like jumping off a cliff- it’s not about your ability, how much faith you are capable of producing, it’s about abandon. It’s about jumping off of the cliff of your insecurities and your having to be in control of everything and finally discovering what you’ve been looking for all along- that you were caught in the arms of your creator the moment your foot left the ledge.