It's just another Tuesday, or is it? My word of the day is RENEW, and in discovering what He wants me to learn today, I came upon a topic that I can't bypass without writing about.
Have you ever thought about dying?
How about dying young?
How about what you want your funeral to be like?
All unpleasant questions, I know, but inevitable questions. Because at the face of death, we are all equal. For some this face to face meeting happens earlier in life than for others.
A 24 year-old Clare got visions of herself dying young, tho' in her two decades she's lived more life than many others, traveling the globe, teaching snowboarding in Canada, teaching English in Burma. I'm not sure what possessed a young woman like her, but she made herself think hard about all three of those questions. She anticipated her own death, dying just a few months shy of her 25th birthday. This is what she wrote in her journal:
Thoughts on a funeral
I want Alex to teach
Everyone to be wearing bright colours. – mainly purple.
I want happy, joyful, celebration music, nothing sad or gloopy.
Please tell everyone this:
God is love. We all need to love one another more than we have ever loved before. Care for one another. Show each other how much they mean to you.
I thank God so much for the people He put in my life and I will thank Him personally when I meet Him. You have all been a part of my journey that has turned me into the person God wanted me to be.
As soon as God came into my life, I felt like I was living life for the first time taking that first breath of fresh air that I had never experienced before.
If there is one thing that you should get out of this funeral today it should be to love. Love with all your heart and soul.
1 John 4:12 – No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
If you have never experienced God’s love then you are going to want to. Trust me, it’s absolutely AWESOME. It’s almost like you’ll need a new heart afterwards because God has shown you how much He loves you that He has burst your heart as there is so much love to give from God. That’s how God is love.
If you feel thankful for me being a part of your life, then thank God. He made me.
Love always, Clare
Read the entire blog here.
I admire Clare's audacity to meet death, perhaps it's because she is sure of what awaits on the otherside, an ETERNITY OF LOVE.
Perhaps true life begins when we are able to face questions about death, and questions about what makes us truly alive and are we doing those things that give us life.
I need to go journal some of these inevitable questions down, how about you?
