Peace

Isaiah 57:1 - The righteous perish,
and no one ponders it in his heart;
devout men are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil.

I wonder how many attendees at a Christian's funeral realize they should only be sad or cry for themselves and others who are still alive. The dead "righteous" person, the Christian, is having a grand time in the afterlife. Survivors who can mange it ought to be shouting, "Yes! Woohoo! Way to go! Congratulations!" as if the deceased had just won the lottery.

Do you think that's insensitive? Stop reading this for a few moments and think about it. Stop reading! Close your eyes and think. Resume with the next paragraph after some thoughts of your own.

Then think again.

The dead Christian just got what he's been "working" for his whole life (possibly). He got what the rest of us can only look forward to. Should that make us sad? If it were any other good thing that he got, we wouldn't be. So we shouldn't be sad for his sake now that he's dead either.

I can still recall being sad, watery-eyed, at my 20-something cousin's funeral. She had had cancer for about 6 months. I was fine until I saw her little sister crying. See, I wasn't sad for my older cousin. She was fine now! I was sad for the family who would miss her. I don't think that family has been the same (with one exception) since.

Proper perspective = peace.