A matter of life and death

You can hardly escape the fact that today, as much as in any other day and age, there is a lot of suffering in the world. The news is full of stories of unspeakable horrors from Iran, Iraq and other places. I have just been checking out my cousin Elwyn's blog from Ukraine with stories of suffering alongside tales of amazing courage and self-giving.

Much - though not all - of this suffering is being endured by Christians as a result of persecution. Again, among the horrific happenings, we hear stories of incredible courage and self-sacrifice. I remember many years back someone, who was enduring persecution, asking that we pray for brothers and sisters undergoing persecution. They asked, not just for prayer for deliverance from suffering, but for the grace not to deny Christ and the grace to die well.

Some years later when I was living under threats and warnings from terrorists in Peru, at a time when several Christian missionaries had been put to death, I remembered those words, and my prayer then was that Jesus would give me the grace to die well should the time come. I don't speak much about those times. 'Normal' life had to continue in some way. They were frightening days, and even now when I think of them, and when I hear or see the sort of  things that are happening today in other places, my stomach churns and I still feel something of that fear.

But what I learned was this. We all die, and we will die well if we live well. I didn't die in the 1980's, but I learned a lot about the importance of living well. I learned a lot about how precious life is; how brief life is; how vitally important it is to live well as in living every moment for Christ. While the manner of dying for some hits our headlines, and is often truly horrific for victims and for family and friends of those killed, the manner of our living  is what should concern us. To live is Christ; to die is gain.

Humanly speaking, of course the manner of my death crosses my mind from time to time - though not as much as those bad old days (which were actually great old days!) - but the manner of my living concerns and occupies me more.