#ReadandReflect: Conquering the Pain of Death
Losing Mom meant losing a great part of my growing-up years. I had wanted to reward my Mom with a trip abroad or a grand vacation just to pay that debt of love I owed her. Not being able to do those things left me with an unfulfilled dream. Having lost my Dad 22 years ago, I have now lost both of the people I love dearly, and to whom I owe so much.
As I pondered about my personal situation, I realized that thousands of people suffered in the same way or even worse than I did. In situations like these, one of the things we can do is cling on to God to comfort our hearts, and that is exactly what the Lord always does for His people. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:3–5, NASB 1995:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.
Another way to overcome such despondency is to be able to see things through the lens of Scripture. If we use human or worldly lenses, we will see death as a subtraction. But death is really an addition, that is if Christ is the Lord and Savior of your life. Paul says in Philippians 1:21, NIV, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Death from its Greek etymology is exodou which is translated in English as exodus. Death is an exodus from this dark, sinful, and messy world into a world of perfection where we will see Jesus face to face. Death, therefore, is the tool that God uses to usher us into His presence. Interestingly, it is seen as our “servant” together with Paul, Apollos, and Cephas.
So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death (bold italics mine) or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.
1 Corinthians 3:21–23, NASB1995
Armed with this perspective, I was comforted in the midst of my mourning knowing that my Mom was a Christian and that she was in heaven with the Lord. As Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:6–8, NASB1995: “Therefore, being always of 39
good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
The death of my Mom and the COVID-19 crisis put everything in proper perspective for me. We have gained a greater realization of the fragility of life and we have come to grips with our own mortality. Never before has this truth been more apparent than now as we have witnessed the departure of millions of people from this earthly life. We all know that, one day, we will face death’s door but in our mind we always say, “Not today!” I have lost friends to COVID-19 or to some other cause and these deaths made me ponder long and hard about our purpose for living. I pray that we would become like the Psalmist who prayed: “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12, NASB1995).
In a life-and-death situation, the best decision we could ever make is to make Jesus the Lord and Savior of our life, for it is when we put our full trust in Him, and not in our good works that we will receive the assurance of eternal life.
This is an excerpt from the chapter Conquering the Pain of Death by Mel Caparros from the book This Season of Grief: Stories, Poetry, Prayers, and Practical Help. This book is available at OMF Lit Bookshops, shop.omflit.com, Shopee, and Lazada for P275.
