Winterizing the Human Soul
I’m writing as the sun is shining and the temperature, for October in Monroe, is in the 70s. In contrast to this near-summer day, here’s a picture of when winter came to my home - there’s my driveway with our old Aerostar in it.
I am just now beginning to winterize my home. I’m firing up the snowblower, putting insulation over the windows in my 1863 “Michigan basement,” getting out the winter clothes, putting the shorts and swim suits away.
Just as here in Monroe we have four not-quite-equal seasons, so does life have seasons. Every life has its “winter.” Just as a home needs to be winterized, so does a life. Some philosophers, such as Martin Heidegger, viewed human life as a “being unto death.” Death is actually more certain than taxes. In some significant ways a person’s life can be seen as a preparation for their death, like preparing for winter.
As a pastor I have been with many people at their moment of death. I have heard their last words (if they were able to speak anything), and I have seen their last breath. I have seen good deaths and bad deaths. I’ve seen the prepared and the unprepared. People like me do funerals, and I have done many. I have witnessed - if you can believe this - funerals that turned into celebrations of joy. And I have seen funerals that degenerated into bitterness and hatred and despair.
A funeral is a reflection of the preparedness or non-preparedness of the deceased person and their family. For me, “winterizing” my life means these things:
1) I will live my life so as to be at peace with God
2) I will live my life so as to be at peace with my family
3) I will live my life so as to work for peace and reconciliation with others
I have seen people die with these three things solidly winterized. It’s then that joy emerges in the midst of tears, hope overcomes despair, and faith displaces fear.
October 20th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
John
Your thoughts and allegorical insights are a soothing balm to many who read them.
Mike
October 20th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Hi Pastor John,
I used to work in a nursing home and would actually have extreme periods of anxiousness thinking about dying. I thought why work hard all of your life to spend the last days stuck in a wheel chair waiting to die. (Nice atttitude huh?) I am so thankful to now know that this life is only a temporary situation, and the truth and reality of death to this world leads to our eternal life with Jesus. It makes it so much easier to know that our youth will pass as will any possesion but the Lord is forever. It is so real and reassuring.