For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.
Let me say it again, to live is CHRIST, to die is GAIN.
As I received news of the death of four friends in Uganda while we have been away and another of a friend’s infant, this verse looped emphatically in my thoughts. They all died after extended times of illness, suffering that strips one’s independence and dignity – and calls us home.
Life, true life is forsaking it. Picking up our cross with joy. Loving as Christ loves, laying it down for our friends and even worldly enemies. Being driven by a force that does not concern itself with prestige, possessions or power, focused entirely on our heavenly Father who has ordered our days and prepared our heavenly abode. And doing it till the end.
Death, the guaranteed liminal end for us all, is inescapable. The hour and the weapon are only known to God, the giver and sustainer of life on both sides of death. It is relief and victory for the believer. It is an end to temptation. It is the realization of our earthly hope, that this life’s end purposefully leads to an unimaginably glorious existence.
To live is Christ, anchors me in the works of today and drags my mind up from the pit when I’m tempted to navel gaze. Lord, may I love those you have given me to serve and do it to the very end that in that perseverance your name is honored.
To die is gain. I think it not morbid for a Christian to be ever ready for glory in the worst of times and best, to shake off the flesh’s apprehension of this body’s end in an exultant anticipation of what sharing in Christ’s victory and undiluted presence will mean.
Come Lord Jesus, come! While we wait, give us the grace to live Christ.