What to do when you’re about to die

I’ve never done any research into how people die, but I’ve definitely read somewhere that the majority of deaths happen to people lying in bed. In other words, they know they’re going to die, and end up basically waiting for it to happen.

Sorry to be morbid.

But however most people die, I reckon there aren’t many people who actually see death staring them in the face and have the opportunity to contemplate it head-on.

Robert Shelby, a lay pastor at a Baptist church, is one man who did when his head hit the bottom of a swimming pool while diving in.

None of my body is moving. So, I go through my feet, my toes, my legs and knees, go through my arms. I’m trying every single part of my body that I thought might get me there, tried dog paddling, but I’m absolutely paralyzed. There’s nothing moving.

Robert Shelby was about to drown, and he knew it.

I prayed just a moment about it, and what came to me was that [since] I praised God for the last 10 years of my life, I should praise him now. So, I began praising him for his grace, for saving me, sending his son, those type things, praising him for the privilege of raising up a family and ministering to people. I prayed that he would watch over my family and provide for them.

His story’s pretty moving, so get a tissue out, read the whole thing here, and be inspired.

The grass is always greener

Apple iPad Event (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have you ever thought that computer programming is similar to life? No? Oh, right.

Well, anyway: one of the most basic computer programming concepts is the IF-THEN statement. IF [I click the ‘Start’ picture] THEN [open the menu]. And I think that we all do this with life as well, just in a slightly different way:

IF [I got married] THEN [I’d be happy]
IF [I get the new iPad] THEN [I’ll feel fulfilled]
IF [we get pregnant] THEN [I’ll know God loves me]
IF [I earned more] THEN [I’d give more to the church]

That old phrase ‘the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence’ is so true, isn’t it? I’m out at work all day and it’s far too easy for me to think how great it would be to just be at home with my son on maternity leave…but I’m sure that Anna could very easily feel similarly about me, the guy who abandons her every morning and just relaxes with no screaming baby and surroundings that aren’t our flat!

I’ve just quit my job to take a new one, and I’ve had to be careful not to leave just because IF [I get a new job] THEN [I’ll be happier at work]! Thankfully, the Bible has some useful guidance on what our attitude should be:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13)

It’s right to be discontent with injustice, but are you content with the grass on your side of the fence? Or do you find it too easy to slip into the IF-THEN mentality?

Let’s commit together to take our eyes off our circumstances and fix them on Jesus.

The hype-disappointment loop

Portrait photo of the actor David Mitchell. Taken in film studio by the uploader with the consent of David, all rights released to Creative Commons. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I went to see Would I Lie To You? a few weeks ago – it was pretty funny. One of the every-weekers on that show is David Mitchell, who I find very funny. And he also writes regularly for The Guardian, which makes me happy.

And a couple of weeks ago he hit the nail right on the head when he went into a lot of detail about how disappointing he found a Michelin-starred restaurant, primarily because it had a Michelin star.

To sum him up, the restaurant is a really nice restaurant but the fact that it has a Michelin star suddenly increased his expectations so much that he was almost guaranteed not to enjoy it. The same’s true of watching a film – if you just switch channels and happen to watch a film that’s just started, the chances are you’ll really enjoy it. But if you massively hype up a film by selling it as the best thing ever but it just isn’t quite that good, you’ll end up thinking it’s rubbish.

Case in point: as a teenager a bunch of friends wanted to watch Black Hawk Down, telling me it was the best film out that year. I wanted something funny though, so I went with one friend of mine to watch Rat Race, not expecting it to be that good. At the end of the film, my friend and I were still rolling around in laughter at this absolute genius film while the rest of the group left disappointed.

Coming in to land. Eternity with Jesus is going to be absolutely amazing – the best thing ever. Every tear will be wiped away, there’ll be no sin, no death, no pain, no sickness, only endless joy, excitement, relief, love, peace, and everything else good. And however good we make it sound, here’s the cast-iron guarantee: it will only ever be better, forever! We will never be let down because of hype or hysteria but continuously blown away by God’s extravagant grace and mercy.

I’m looking forward to that.

Whistle while you work

My day job is to be an auditor. Yes, I know, it sounds boring. Don’t worry, to keep myself entertained during the day I tend to sing, to the frustration of everyone who sits close to me.

Auditors don’t like to sing.

But I’m not sure why. I think it’s because auditors tend to think of themselves of being a tad too serious for singing…but it seems that G.K. Chesterton agrees with me on this point!

If reapers sing while reaping, why should not auditors sing while auditing and bankers while banking?

He even went as far as to write some suggested verses that auditors and bankers could sing while at work.

They didn’t go down very well.

Chesterton summed up the sorry state of affairs:

Bank-clerks are without songs not because they are poor, but because they are sad.

Do you sing while at work?

Should you?

Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis by Terry Lindvall

This book is a study into C.S. Lewis’ approach to humour. The author acknowledges that in reality dissecting a joke stops it from being funny, so attempts instead to simply present Lewis’ ideas in their purest form, quoting from him liberally and attempting to communicate to the reader what he really meant without losing the wit originally present.

The book’s split into six parts: an introduction, a deeper look into C.S. Lewis’ four ‘types’ of humour (satire and flippancy, the joke proper, fun, and joy), and a conclusion.

Let’s start with the good bits. Lindvall accurately captures C.S. Lewis’ character throughout – he goes into a lot of depth for each aspect of Lewis’ approach to comedy, and as I say he quotes from him left, right and centre. I found myself challenged at times and chuckling at times, and sometimes experiencing both simultaneously. C.S. Lewis would be proud!

But for me there are some glaring not-so-good bits which don’t necessarily make the book a bad one, but are certainly worth noting.

Firstly, the book assumes a certain level of background knowledge about C.S. Lewis such as his nickname ‘Jack’ and his portfolio of books, both of which are referenced with little or no context, leaving the reader confused without that knowledge. If you’re completely unfamiliar with C.S. Lewis I wouldn’t use this book as your introduction!

Secondly, the book is very long! This is less a light-hearted joke book, more a weighty biography. Even the nature of the footnotes section (a very detailed bibliography rather than an explanation of context) is far more intellectual than the title might suggest.

Thirdly, saying this is about C.S. Lewis is not quite right – Lindvall probably quotes from G.K. Chesterton just as much as Lewis, and for good reason, but I feel it does take away from the focus of the book being C.S. Lewis.

Finally I’m not sure that the book has the right title. It’s subtitled ‘the comic world of C.S. Lewis’, but in reality it’s about general attitudes to life, Christianity and eternity, including dealing with suffering, sin, and other things which it would be difficult to describe as ‘comic’.

In summary then, I genuinely enjoyed this book; I do think it’s a fair reflection of Lewis’ attitude towards laughter and a deep sense of joy. I suppose, however, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, which just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover (much like Lewis himself).

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Serve yourself

Image via Wikipedia

The other day I passed a charity building which had this claim in the front window:

WE SERVE OTHERS, NOT OURSELVES.

Apart from the arrogant and judgmental tone I instantly thought, ‘Well, of course you do serve others, but that sign certainly isn’t there for them is it?’

Based solely on that sign it would appear that the people working for that charity do so primarily as a way to make themselves feel good for having served others not themselves…which is a bit contradictory, don’t you think? They serve others in order to serve themselves!

But that got me thinking about love. If a husband said ‘I make my wife happy, not myself’ that sounds very noble, but ultimately doesn’t work because of the way relationships function; a husband really makes his wife happy to make his life easier.

Think about it like this; if Anna were in hospital and I went to visit her she might say, ‘Oh Sam it’s so nice to see you!’ and I might reply, ‘Well, you know I didn’t really want to but I love you, so here I am.’ She probably wouldn’t feel very loved at that moment. But if I’d said ‘I’ve been looking forward to seeing you all day!’ she’d probably feel far better about it.

So in order to love and serve others best, it actually works itself out if we do it in order to serve ourselves. Strange but true.

Do you want to be happy or angry?

I clicked a link on a blog I follow yesterday and found this post. A couple of thoughts.

First, this post is from a set of blogs entitled Freethought Blogs. But it looks like all the blogs are atheist. So it doesn’t look like the team encourages genuine free thought. Happy to be proved wrong, didn’t really look around that much, just seemed at first glance to be a bit like false advertising.

Secondly, how angry is this guy? His conclusion about death is literally: I hate death, and I hate life. There is no hope, and I hate anyone who says there is. Hate hate hate.

Now, perhaps I’m being silly, but looking at Christianity and atheism it doesn’t strike me that there’s any contest:

Christianity gives you a certainty that God’s good and in complete control over life, death and everything else. Christianity, at an over-simplistic level, makes you permanently happy.

Atheism gives you a certainty that you’re worthless and your actions are insignificant. Atheism means that bad things aren’t actually bad because there’s no such thing as objective ‘good’, so it brings depression, hopelessness, and hatred (as our friend demonstrates so well and so willingly).

Logically speaking, if atheism is true, then nothing we do, say or believe matters. So atheists: stop being so angry! Enjoy the limited life you have – at least on that point I agree with the words Richard Dawkins sponsored (although let’s be honest he’s not the best advocate for a happy person)!

And, logically speaking, if Christianity is true then not only does it make you happy, it will make you happy for the rest of eternity!

C.S. Lewis was logically correct when he said that if Christianity’s true it’s of utmost importance, and if it’s not, it’s of no importance whatsoever. It strikes me as hypocritical, therefore, when atheists like the guy I linked to get so worked up about something they think is a fairy story. It’s like losing your temper at a child because they’re trying to work out where Father Christmas lives - you personally might not think Santa exists (unbeliever!) but it doesn’t matter because it’s making them happy. And if this life is all there is, let’s get as happy as possible, right?

But thank goodness I get to be happy for eternity!

It’s all Walt Disney’s fault

Image via Wikipedia

DID YOU KNOW…

I think we all know that pretty much all of Walt Disney’s films are based on popular fairy tales, like Snow White, Cinderella and so on.

But we might not know that the stories were changed because Disney didn’t like sad endings; he was unhappy in life and wanted the characters in his movies to experience paradise in their little worlds. Take Pinocchio: the original story included Pinocchio stomping Jiminy Cricket to death with his foot, and the story ends with Pinocchio being hung – I don’t remember that in the Disney film!

When you think about it, every Disney film follows the same basic storyline: the main character has a dream, and it comes true…and this has now been replicated throughout Hollywood, and even into our minds. We’ve had a couple of generations brought up on Disney films now, but we have more depression, debt and addiction than ever before in history.

Ideas like Disney’s have affected our attitudes to the point that we think the purpose of existing must be to achieve our little dreams of money, sex and power – and when God doesn’t provide on them we’re disappointed. But God always knows better than we do, and always wants better than we do. I’ve quoted this before but it bears repeating – here’s C.S. Lewis, with perhaps one of my favourite quotes of all time:

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

More Than Ordinary by Doug Sherman

In this book Doug Sherman explains that it is actually possible to enjoy life with God! Based on his experience as a teenager in which he handed every area of his life over to God and was surprised to find that Christians actually seemed less happy than other people, he has compiled a biblical argument for how life can truly be enjoyed through our relationship with God. The book is separated into two sections: Encountering God, in which we learn about God’s character, and Enjoying God, in which that character is practically applied to our daily lives.

Sherman’s a good communicator – I found the book easy to read but not over-simplistic – and he has an ability to explain some pretty enormous truths concisely. The concepts presented here aren’t ground-breaking by any means but I found it really useful to be reminded of the importance of the Christian basics like prayer, purity and witness.

Each chapter finishes with a paragraph about how to practically apply the lessons learnt; I imagine this could work well as a devotional in which you think about the chapter during the day or week, or as a tool for a small group discussion.

I’d be happy to recommend this book to any Christian but particularly those who have been Christians for a while – it really takes us back to the foundations of Christianity in a way that isn’t patronising.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Shelter of God's Promises by Sheila Walsh (audio)

There are some books which are just so filled with grace that they remind you how it felt to have just been born again: this is one of those books. By looking at ten of God’s promises, Sheila Walsh digs deep into the overwhelming love and protection that God has for us.

Walsh picks apart every point, addressing every question that might come up. The book is not massively intellectual and is one of those books that you can simply listen to while doing something else. I particularly admired the way she references the original Greek text to pull out meanings that are not instantly apparent in the English Bible text, without making you feel uneducated. Perhaps on one or two occasions I wasn’t sure this added much, but on the whole I’d encourage this to Christians, especially ladies and especially those who have experienced tough times.

Each point is thoroughly Bible-based, and makes great use of stories – at times I felt myself wanting to both laugh and cry, and it’s not often that you find a book like that. What’s particularly good about this audio version is that it’s narrated by Sheila Walsh herself – if you can get past the American/Scottish accent, this really adds that personal, genuine touch.

I got this audiobook for free from christianaudio.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.