I had one of those random thoughts yesterday (remember, this blog is about random musings, right?). It came as a question: "What is a fate worse than death?" "A fate worse than death" is admittedly a cliche phrase, but when the question popped into my head while I was driving home from church, the answer appeared quite suddenly: "Yes ... not living."
The fate worse than death is not living. Not being fully alive while you are living is a fate worse than death. We're often held hostage to the things we fear in our lives. We are afraid: afraid of losing our jobs, losing our health, losing our loved ones, losing our security, losing control, losing our independence, losing our life. We are afraid of losing so many things that we are bound up in fear and held hostage to it. So we play it safe and think nothing bad will happen if we just color inside the lines and follow the rules ... and we stop living and merely exist.
News flash ... coloring inside and following the rules doesn't protect you from loss. You can lose it all in a moment. We received news this evening of a woman who, after giving birth to her third child last week, suffered a massive stroke. She is on life support and the bleeding in her brain has not stopped. Her husband is numb - it wasn't supposed to be like this. Where is God in this?
Admittedly, these things shake me to the core. They are reminders that nothing is truly safe in this life - at least not by the safety standards we humans envision. Our safety rests in God alone and not living fully when life is so fleeting isn't a faithful option.
