Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
Chapter 84
I have been thinking about death quite a lot lately. It is difficult not to seeing as everyday so many people are dying. If it’s not from what is now termed ‘post election violence’ then it’s from a gruesome road accident. But the death I was thinking about is my own death.
Am I ready to die? What does preparing for death require? My answer to these questions was no, I am not ready to die because I have not discovered my purpose for living.
Are you on track to finding out your purpose for living? My answer to this question was yes. The fact that I asked myself that question meant that I was still alive to the fact that life is an illusion.
Why do you say that life is an illusion? My answer to this question was that life is a school. Just like any school in life. What happens to us in school, is not considered real life. It is real life in the sense that the events that take place affect what kind of life you have thereafter but after school, life takes on a whole new meaning. In the same way, after death, life takes on a whole new meaning. The life I am living now is for the purpose of preparing me for the real life - the life I will be born into after my death.
If life is a school, how do I learn how to prepare myself for death? My answer to this question was to read the Bible. Which I did and this is what I found.
The Bible says that God is love. God identifies Himself as WHO I AM. From these words, I figured that my life’s purpose is to get to know God; it is to get to know who I am. If God is love, how can I get to know who love is?
I read 1 Corinthians 13 and found a description of love which I summarized as follows:-
Without LOVE I am nothing.
Love: suffers long and is kind;
Love: does not envy;
Love: does not parade itself, and is not puffed up;
Love: does not behave rudely;
Love: does not seek its own;
Love: is not provoked;
Love: thinks no evil;
Love: does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth;
Love: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
LOVE NEVER FAILS.
My conclusion on reading the above was that my life’s purpose is to know God, to know love. To know love, I need to develop the qualities of love which are described above. I need to use the events occurring in my life to help me cultivate the qualities of God. Once I develop a character that embodies the qualities of God, then I will know God and then I will be ready to be born into death.
The first thing that I need to do is change my attitude towards life. I need to stop letting myself be controlled by what I see and what people do or say to me. I mean that I must not allow myself to react to the things of this world as if they are real. I must remember that the things of this world will cease to exist when I die and all that will be left is me. The things of this world, are an illusion. I must not attach myself to them as if they will follow me into death. We all know that we die with nothing.
I need to understand that the things of this world are there only now while I am alive to help me become the real me who is a spiritual being. I need to resist the urge to be a human being: the urge to get angry, to behave rudely, to envy, to boast, to be pompous, to be selfish, to be provoked, to think evil, to rejoice in iniquity, to be irresponsible, to doubt, to despair and to give up.
This is my life’s challenge and it starts with memorizing the qualities of love and applying them in my life ALL the time.
What a challenge! Am I up to it? Why else was I born?
Chapter 84
I have been thinking about death quite a lot lately. It is difficult not to seeing as everyday so many people are dying. If it’s not from what is now termed ‘post election violence’ then it’s from a gruesome road accident. But the death I was thinking about is my own death.
Am I ready to die? What does preparing for death require? My answer to these questions was no, I am not ready to die because I have not discovered my purpose for living.
Are you on track to finding out your purpose for living? My answer to this question was yes. The fact that I asked myself that question meant that I was still alive to the fact that life is an illusion.
Why do you say that life is an illusion? My answer to this question was that life is a school. Just like any school in life. What happens to us in school, is not considered real life. It is real life in the sense that the events that take place affect what kind of life you have thereafter but after school, life takes on a whole new meaning. In the same way, after death, life takes on a whole new meaning. The life I am living now is for the purpose of preparing me for the real life - the life I will be born into after my death.
If life is a school, how do I learn how to prepare myself for death? My answer to this question was to read the Bible. Which I did and this is what I found.
The Bible says that God is love. God identifies Himself as WHO I AM. From these words, I figured that my life’s purpose is to get to know God; it is to get to know who I am. If God is love, how can I get to know who love is?
I read 1 Corinthians 13 and found a description of love which I summarized as follows:-
Without LOVE I am nothing.
Love: suffers long and is kind;
Love: does not envy;
Love: does not parade itself, and is not puffed up;
Love: does not behave rudely;
Love: does not seek its own;
Love: is not provoked;
Love: thinks no evil;
Love: does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth;
Love: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
LOVE NEVER FAILS.
My conclusion on reading the above was that my life’s purpose is to know God, to know love. To know love, I need to develop the qualities of love which are described above. I need to use the events occurring in my life to help me cultivate the qualities of God. Once I develop a character that embodies the qualities of God, then I will know God and then I will be ready to be born into death.
The first thing that I need to do is change my attitude towards life. I need to stop letting myself be controlled by what I see and what people do or say to me. I mean that I must not allow myself to react to the things of this world as if they are real. I must remember that the things of this world will cease to exist when I die and all that will be left is me. The things of this world, are an illusion. I must not attach myself to them as if they will follow me into death. We all know that we die with nothing.
I need to understand that the things of this world are there only now while I am alive to help me become the real me who is a spiritual being. I need to resist the urge to be a human being: the urge to get angry, to behave rudely, to envy, to boast, to be pompous, to be selfish, to be provoked, to think evil, to rejoice in iniquity, to be irresponsible, to doubt, to despair and to give up.
This is my life’s challenge and it starts with memorizing the qualities of love and applying them in my life ALL the time.
What a challenge! Am I up to it? Why else was I born?
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