24: Are Your Bags Packed?
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
MY CELL VIBRATED WITH A TEXT. A dear friend had just collapsed at the gym and was taken to the emergency room. His heart had stopped. After ten minutes of CPR, his heart began beating again. This friend is a few years my senior and is in excellent shape. Fortunately, he came through this, but it gave me pause.
As I have been writing these devotionals, I’ve been focusing on living well during the years I have left on this earth. People who know I’ve been writing on this topic resonate with this idea, and we’ve had many discussions about bucket lists.
I’m aware that I have fewer years ahead of me than behind, and that can be sobering. My father looked forward to “going home” and recently, at age ninety-two, God took him home. On Sunday, he went out for lunch with a friend; on Monday evening, he was in heaven. I like to say that my dad had his bags packed —he was ready.
The Puritans believed that we can only live well if we’re preparing for death. They talked about death and didn’t live in denial of it, as our society attempts to do. Of course, sooner or later we are forced to face it.
I remember an elderly First Nations chief saying, “You as the white man have built a wall between where we are and where those who have died are.” He then said, “We as a First Nations people do not have a wall.”
I have always remembered that conversation. As we age, it seems that wall becomes more like a veil. The veil between where my parents are and where I am seems quite thin.
So, what is death?
It’s a separation of what is physical from that which is spiritual. One ages; the other does not.
Here are a few points to reflect on as you prepare for death, that separation of your body and soul.
- Live in light of heaven. This means treating each day as a gift. We’re not living on borrowed time; rather, time has been entrusted to us.
- Continue to study, work, and play. I’d suggest that, in our 55+ demographic, we need to see these three areas lived out simultaneously.
- Live with a sense of letting go. Our world is one of constant releasing. Our children leave home, we change jobs, our parents and friends experience deteriorating health or death, and we ourselves face health issues. A practical step to prepare for death is to put together a binder of documentation for your spouse with all the information he or she needs to know about your affairs. Make sure to update the financial and medical records in your binder as needed. You may want to plan a retreat to reflect, plan, and discuss the steps you need to put in place to prepare for death.
Questions
- How would you respond if I were to ask you, “Are your bags packed?” What steps do you need to take?
- Do you treat each day as a gift? Why or why not?
- What would it look like to study, work, and play in your season of life?
- What dreams do you still have?
- In what ways do you need to adopt a sense of releasing?