Thank you. I agree: I have come to feel that the truest, innermost part of me, is Christ. Gravitating towards Him is actually being “my best self”.

#5 can make me both hopeful and also terrified. ? “My only true possessions are my actions, and I cannot escape their consequences.” But in light of your comment, I see the beauty of it. The more we are surrounded by death, as you have been of late, the more aware we are of the need to be our true selves so our purest essence can live on even after we are gone. And I believe our purest essence is the God-breathed part, the piece of God that we all have in us.

Yes, it is life-changing to realize that our end is only a more beautiful beginning again with God….

We (my wife & I) have had a decade or so of death, as relatives of the older generation go on. It has taught me that dying is part of living. A person’s personality would remain, even distilled, while their body fell away from them. I will be like them one day. Hopkins’ poem about Felix Randall has been with me through all of it.

Of course this doesn’t work for my friend Clare, wiped out in a motorbike accident in the 90s. Her fate spotlights your Buddhists’ #5: her actions and their consequences, her example (a fighter for justice and truth) remains (she had a fiercely secular funeral — including a reading from Trotsky — I feel sure she lives on, in a good place, but I wouldn’t know where).

In my pre-Christian days I would often think about Christ’s death on the cross. Why didn’t He die of old age, surrounded by doting grandchildren? He was one of us (only more so) so His death was as inconvenient, humiliating and painful as it is for us (only more so), and, like us, He couldn’t help but be Himself, right to the end.

As my family members age and I trail behind, the six tenants you’ve mentioned have become sharper in focus. I’m so grateful that in Him we are assured of imperishable bodies–a return to what He planned from the time of the Garden.

Peace and grace,
Tammy

Ah, thanks for this insight that it’s a “privilege” to get to grow older. You’re right, Maree!

There is such wisdom in this post. Although I would like to look away from me growing older, it is also a privilege. Not everyone gets to grow older. I always have liked the idea of facing reality, and it makes more sense. However, I don’t always do it well. Thank you for the reminder.

You provide a valuable insight here, Jean. Even though we may become separated in one sense, we do still retain our loved ones with us forever in many ways. That’s a comforting thought and truth that we also need to remember!

You’re right, Donna, that the death of others does force us to think about our own eternity. I’m very glad to know that death isn’t the end. Thank you for your kindness.