Last week I commented on a post by my friend Jeff about hope in the face of the recent tragic death of a young Christian man named Clete. Tom, a frequent visitor to Jeff’s site, who is not a Christian and keeps a site called “Lean Left,” also commented on Jeff’s post. Tom felt that the hope expressed by many of the young man’s friends and family was somewhat misplaced. Tom felt that “it would be infinitely better if the person hadn’t died at all.” Here are my thoughts:
Christians can make hopeful comments despite this kind of tragedy because we believe this life isn’t all there is. We believe Clete is in fact alive right now, more alive than he ever was before, and that his future is even more promising now than ever. This life, for us, is a pilgrimage towards a better country. It’s filled with joys that are only shadows of the joys to come, but it’s also filled with pains that pass away when we reach that better country. The Apostle Paul summed up our feelings about these things in his letter to the Phillipians: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
This hope is also portrayed beautifully in the book from which Jeff’s blog takes it’s title, C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. “Dawn Treader” is one of the Narnia books, which include “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” soon coming out on film. The “Dawn Treader” of the title is a ship that sets sail towards the ends of the earth. One of the characters in “Dawn Treader,” Reepicheep the mouse, is intent on sailing all the way to Aslan’s country. (Aslan the lion, a central character in the Narnia stories, is a picture of Christ.) When the group’s courage falters and begins to question the usefulness of their mission, Reepicheep admonishes them:
If by use you mean filling our bellies or our purses, I confess it will be no use at all. So far as I know we did not set sail to look for things useful, but seek honor and adventure. And here is as great an adventure as I ever heard of, and here, if we turn back, no little impeachment of all our honors.
I’d encourage you to read the lovely little “Dawn Treader” story for a bit more insight on how Christians think about death. For us Christians, life is a great adventure because we know we are sailing towards “Aslan’s Country.” We bear hardships like the death of a loved one with great hope, even in the midst of great pain, because of this.
Perhaps you think Christians are deluded for thinking this way. We think, though, that people who view this life as the end of the adventure are the sad and deluded ones. After all, if this life is all there is, when could anyone ever say that they’ve lived a long and full enough life? There is always more to experience, see, and accomplish, yet it would all vanish in an instant. Like the writer of Ecclesiastes, we could all say
What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever….I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
For the Christian, the answer to this is our faith that all of our days are in God’s hands, and that He is building something wonderful in and through us that will last forever.
