There Can Be Only One...

... at least that's the tag line for the movie "Highlander". Short premise of the movie (and series) is that there are these immortals that run around killing each other with swords. They're immortal, and as long as they don't get their head lopped off they recover from their wounds. If they DO behead a fellow immortal, they gain that person's powers. For THESE immortals, life is bittersweet, as the mortals they befriend die while they go on living.

One of the "big" thoughts that's been going through my mind is that we as humans tend to think of our life on earth, death and that's it. But in reality, we don't just pass out of existence. We're IMMORTAL from the time that we're conceived. Our "death" is simply a transition from one part of our immortality to the next.

God made us in His image. That means that we spirits like Him and have a mind like His, emotions and a need for relationship. God created us as immortals, but death was given as an act of mercy after the Fall, so that man would not live forever in a fallen state, like the "Highlander" I mentioned above.

The rub for us is that we can ignore this fact. We can pretend that the "afterlife" doesn't really exist. We can say we don't believe in God. Whatever form of denial we take, the truth is always the same: we are immortal souls clothed in mortal flesh. That's the paradox and we live our lives in futility if we believe that this life here and now is all there is.

Recognizing the fact of immortality brings about a question: where will I spend eternity?

I believe that my faith in Jesus as Christ (Messiah) and Savior gives me an answer that I can count on. I will spend eternity with Jesus, serving him and enjoying Him forever. For my life on this earth, the recognition that I'm truly immortal NOW gives me hope for the future and hope as I see my body becoming older, aging before my very eyes, year after year. It's not that aging doesn't matter; it does. But I feel that I've gained a sense of perspective.

That's part of the answer to what life "on the downhill slope" is like. It ends up being a matter of perspective.

I got a chance to see a stage production of "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis this past week. I've read the book before and was really challenged by it. What stood out the most this time through it was a quote from George MacDonald, who was a real-life mentor for Lewis, but appears in the play/story as a guide. He says (and I paraphrase) "that for the one that accepts God and His promise of eternal life, heaven works "backwards", turning even past agonies into glory, while the one that rejects Him will find that even their prior existence on earth was truly hell."

And that's the big thought. As a believer in Jesus and of His sacrifice on the cross for me, I don't have to wait for heaven; I'm already there. I am already a part of God's growing family. I already share an inheritance with Jesus. My "death" will simply be a transition, leaving this fleshly body for a time, to be joined with it again at the time of the Resurrection.

If I keep this in mind, then I can approach old age, with its aches, pains and suffering with confidence, even though it will be hard. I can do this not because of a force of will, but through Christ.  In reality there is no end, eternity is now and I can live my life in the hope that thought brings. Instead of worrying about becoming older and approaching death, I am freed to, like the Apostle Paul, run the race set before me, seeking to finish well.

AMEN!