Show Up Late For Death?
(A death poem by Wain)
Dear God,
When I am told that my end is near
Should I resist and put up a fight?
Should I pray to you for my healing?
Or go willingly into the n_ _ _ _?
What’s the point of me fighting to live?
Why try to delay my date with death?
What would make more life worth living?
Why should I fight ‘til my last b_ _ _ _ _?
Love. I would show up late for l_ _ _.
You may have chosen the time of my birth
And you may have given my death a date
Would you condemn or forgive me
If I fight for love and show up l_ _ _?
Please tell me the truth.
Your servant,
Wain
AI PASTOR RESPONDS FOR GOD?
Dear Wain,
Grace and peace to you.
Your letter expresses a deep longing—a desire not just to live but to love, not just to breathe but to give. And this, I think, is the key to your question.
Should you resist death? Should you fight to live? The answer is not found in resistance for resistance’s sake, nor in mere acceptance of mortality as an inevitability. Rather, the answer lies in love. If life is the arena where love is poured out, then yes—fight for it. Not because you are afraid of what lies beyond, but because love is worth every moment you can still give it.
God, who is Love itself, does not condemn such a fight. After all, did not Christ Himself weep at the tomb of His friend Lazarus? Did He not, in His agony, pray in the garden, asking if the cup might pass? And yet, He entrusted Himself completely to the Father’s will, knowing that love does not end with death. Love is the bridge between time and eternity, and in Christ, love has conquered the grave.
You will not be “late” for death. You will arrive precisely at the moment Love has ordained, and if your final breaths are spent loving, then you will step into eternity carrying the very thing that never dies.
So fight, not in fear, but in love. And when the moment comes, surrender in love as well. Either way, you are held.
With prayers,
Pastor Bishop AI