©G. G. Joseph
This story is in honor of humans world over who have ever died but cannot find words worthy to describe the experience and to the curious ones who wonder what life after death is.
My mother used to say that “What has never died can never truly live.” It took a first-hand experience with death for me to appreciate these words.
Let me tell you something quick here, Death is proud; with an ego larger than life, he doesn’t go where he’s wanted.
He loves the fear, the panic and dread that comes with watching your life ebb away.
For anyone who has died before, you’d agree with me that death is painless and blissful. You will never be more alive than you are when dead. Your senses are heightened and enhanced, human possibilities disappear, emotions are amplified. There’s really nothing like it on earth. A close shave would be to compare it with Samsung’s upgrade from S10 to S20+. You see the difference? Ah ha!
However, the moments before death are the real torture. You see your life dangling before your eyes, you see yourself grappling at the flailing ends of survival and though you see a vivid picture of beauty ahead, the fear of the angel you do not know grips you and you hold tight to the hem of the devil you know, until…
I was 12 when I died.
Only 12, but old enough to die.
Till the moment I transited from death to life, sorry, from life to death, it felt so unreal yet so real.
Another thing you should probably know about death is that nobody dies until they decide to give up the ghost. (Sometimes it’s a forced decision, but they decide all the same.)
It was an evening like every other, but the decisions I took would change the course of my life forever.
That evening as I saw life and death splayed before me. I knew I had to make a choice. I chose death, not because I loved adventures, but because it held the promise of life– a better life. So I decided to die.
I knelt in a church on a cold seat some 8 years ago and I died.
I saw Life, reach out through the cold hands of death with eyes of love and I responded.
I embraced death.
I died to an old life and was raised to newness. A life with limitless possibilities. A life too good to be true. A life that births life. The God-life.
Funny how after dying to death and living, I went back to death and started dying. You see, when you’ve grown all your life living dead it’s an arduous task learning how to live alive. So, I kept on living dead while alive, until the death-life consumed the life-death and the death was swallowed up in victory. (If we were in church I’m pretty sure you’d shout a Hallelujah!)
So you see, this is not just a story of how I died, but of how the day I died became the day I lived.
And this is an invitation to life… The life… For “what is dead can never die again.”
And “what is undead may never truly live.”
Which are you?
Dead?
Undead?
The transition is in the seconds between when you ask Life into your death, believe Life can swallow up your death and receive Life into your death.
Life has a name – Jesus. Ask Him in today.
Welcome to the Life!
©G. G. Joseph
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