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By Nancy Virden c2011
Remember yesterday when you greeted the morning of the first day of the rest of your life? Your forever is now two days older. Setting our sights on an afterlife that some promise to be heavenly is one way to imagine we are putting forever off until tomorrow. Nevertheless, forever is not timeless if it does not include today.
The idea of immortality entices some people to create lasting legacies; a statue, a building in their honor, authoring a book, instilling values in their children. Still others hide from any reminder that they may be forgotten altogether. Maybe the possibility of immortality affects our choices today.
Does Forever Matter?
A young woman told me of her near-death experience during surgery. Slipping too deeply under the anesthesia, she traveled to where she had a one-on-one talk with God.
“Is this it?” she asked. Surrounded by blue light, she experienced a peace unequalled on earth. A complete lack of any concern or distress.
He allowed her to rest for a moment, and bask in the lightness of her mood. “You have to go back now,” she then heard Him say. “I want you to finish your life.”
Looking down as if through space at the body of a female she did not recognize, she resisted. “ I don’t want to be her”, she said referring to the heaviness of the strange woman’s heart. “She is in so much pain.”
“It is only for a short time. I have work for you to do.” His warm words echoed in her ears as she felt herself sliding downward as if through a chute.
Her eyes opened. People with worried faces surrounded her. “You scared us,” a woman said. “We thought we were losing you.”
As if awaking from the deepest dream she had ever experienced, the young woman asked repeatedly, “Is this real? Am I actually here?”
A nurse laughed. “People have some pretty strange reactions to being under. Yes, this is real.”
When I speak to this woman now, she expresses a sincere faith that an afterlife exists and God has a reason for her to wait. Life has been hard, the ache in her heart is potent. Recalling the flawless peace she knew for just one moment, current struggles weigh heavily, challenging her to be patient and driving her to fulfill her life’s purpose.
So what about us. Do we “only go around once”?
Does the possibility of immortality concern our lives today?
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