Thoughts about Death
Category: Faith...
Posted Tuesday, December 14, 2004 at 08:59 PM [GMT-6]

I've been thinking about death lately. A couple of things have caused me to contemplate questions like why some people cling so heroically to life, and would it be worse to die or to spend the rest of my life in prison.

Of course, the sentencing of Scott Peterson is the jumping off point for the latter question. If I was in his shoes...well, my imagination, as good as it is, isn't really up to that scenario. But I can't help thinking that I'd rather die than live the next 50 years in solitary confinement.

The thing that sent me chasing the first question was the watching of Touching the Void, the 2003 movie about two young climbers who almost died during an attempt to climb Siula Grande, a mountain in Peru. In the movie, which is based on a true story, one of the men makes it down the mountain badly shaken but in relatively good condition. His partner, however, suffered a severely broken leg during the descent, then fell about 80 feet into a crevasse and was abandoned for dead. Despite agonizing pain, he managed to crawl out of the crevasse and back down the mountain over the course of several days, and was discovered and rescued only a few hours short of death.

The movie is, in fact, a re-creation of actual events narrated by the two climbers themselves. The injured climber shared his thoughts as he lay in the crevasse and realized that he was probably going to die. He did not believe in God, and he was certain that when he died, that was it...nothingness. He had no family to live for, but the fear of "the void" and the anger at having to leave the world with so many adventures as yet untackled was simply more than he was willing to accept. So he didn't. He clawed his way, literally, back to life, cursing and screaming and crying all the way.

I don't know that I'd be that heroic, that desperate, in the same situation. The simple fact of the matter is that, for me, there are worse things than dying. My faith in God, my belief in heaven and in my absolute salvation give me a much different perspective than the young man in the movie. As much as I love life and family and friends and all the wonderful blessings I enjoy on a daily basis, I also realize that, in the truest sense, the best is yet to come.

That doesn't mean that I want to hasten the passing of life (although, Jesus, if you want to return tonight, you have my sincerest blessing!). God's gift is too precious to squander or to take for granted, although I do both all the time. It's just that, well, my soul knows of a better place.

I've always liked the song that Sandi Patti and Wayne Watson recorded years ago, entitled "Another Time, Another Place." The chorus goes like this:

Interestingly...and a bit sadly, I must admit...the man in the movie came away from his experience unchanged, spiritually-speaking (as far as I could discern). He's still trying to "live life to the fullest," before it finally runs dry and leaves him with...nothing. Or so he believes. I hope he discovers the truth before it claims him.

I pray the same thing for Scott Peterson. His crimes were heinous and his punishment is just and proportionate. But that doesn't mean that he's beyond redemption in an eternal sense. Unfortunately, I fear that he's of the same mindset as the injured climber, and any living fate is preferable to "the void."