Imagine Living Life Free of the Fear of Dying
We’re going on eight weeks now of varying degrees of shutdown, shelter-in-place orders, etc… Many of us are scratching our heads, wondering how this could have happened. How could a nation renowned for its pioneering spirit so passively give in and accept orders seemingly devoid of rationale or a since of proportion?
Whether the shutdown was a prudent response at the outset or whether there were more effective reactions is for another day but is also no longer the immediate issue. The issue now is whether the shutdown need continue outside certain areas of NYC and possibly a few other small regions.
We’ve all seen the numbers in the rest of the country. More deaths from automobile accidents, the traditional flu, etc… The number of deaths attributed to Covid-19 will hardly be a blip on the screen. I live in Arizona and South Carolina. As of May 4th, in Arizona, a state with population just over seven million, and a state in which over 50,000 people die each year, a total of 362 deaths have been attributed to the virus. In South Carolina, a state with a population just over five million, and a state in which over 50,000 people die a year, as of May 4th a total of 267 deaths have been attributed to the virus. And, yes, in the overwhelming majority of cases, those who died were suffering from one or more underlying conditions and/or at the end of their lives.
Despite the numbers, despite the facts, I perceive that a great many people, young people at that, people with nothing to fear, are, in fact, afraid. So, there it is. One possible explanation for why this country so willingly accepted draconian steps that turned our lives upside down, isolated us from our fellow man and destroyed dreams and businesses: a fear of death.
When I read comments to articles or blog posts, many of those in favor of the continued shutdown fall into one of two categories. First, there are the comments by people accusing those of us wanting the nation reopened to value money over lives. The second category of comments goes something like this: “Thank you Governor so-and-so for taking the steps to protect us,” or “Thank you for making the public health your number one priority,” or some such variation. In a nutshell, this second category of comments is a plea for safety and a desire for someone else to insure it. It’s a call for state action to limit the activities and freedom of one group of citizens so another group can feel safe.
In my conversations with friends who I know, like me, believe Jesus Christ is who He says He is, knowing eternal life waits on the other side greatly minimizes any fear of dying.
The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is well known. (John, chapter 11). Lazarus had been dead for four days and was lying in a tomb wrapped in linen. Jesus walked into the tomb and said “Lazarus, come out.” Lazarus walked out of the tomb and when news of what Jesus had done spread, more and more people began to believe that Jesus was the Christ.
My favorite part of the story occurs in the next chapter in the Gospel of John. Jesus was in Bethany waiting for the Passover celebration to begin and we read that Lazarus was reclining at the table with Jesus. Just imagine how Lazarus lived out the rest of his time on earth. Do you think he was scared of dying? Of anything? No, of course not. I’ll bet he felt both grateful to his friend Jesus and also pretty bullet proof. He knew that death had no hold on him. What joy!
Imagine living life today with that same confidence. How differently would we face the corona virus if we knew death had no hold on us. How differently would we face all of life absent a fear of death. That same confidence is available to us.
That confidence was on display when the Black Plague killed over one hundred million people in the fourteenth century. A friend of mine recently reminded me that Christians cared for and tended to those dying from the plague even though they knew that doing so greatly increased their chances of dying from the Plague.
Richard Dawkins, author and famed atheist said: “Faith is the great copout, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.” I disagree. This quote more aptly applies to today’s secular humanist vainly trying to reorder society so they won’t be exposed to a virus that has proven deadly to elderly people with one or more underlying health problems.
Re-read Richard Dawkins quote but replace the word ‘Faith’ with the phrase ‘You can never be too safe’. It reads like this: “‘You can never be too safe’ is the great copout, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. ‘You can never be too safe’ is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.”
Let’s also consider the words of Patrick Henry and contrast them with the words of the popular song “Imagine” by John Lennon. Patrick Henry famously said: “Give me liberty or give me death”
John Lennon wrote these lyrics:
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
I can’t imagine many conditions more depressing than living in a world where there was nothing worth killing or dying for. When the Allied forces invaded Normandy in June 1944, a battle that led to Western Europe’s liberation and helped turn the outcome of World War Two, the men who stormed the beaches that day and the officers in charge undertook their mission knowing that thousands of our troops would die. But they stormed the beaches anyway. They did it because life is precious and because life is meant to be lived freely.
Life is trivialized by a paralyzing fear of death. Now imagine what life will be like when we begin living it freely, free from the fear of death.
