Thoughts on dying

Here are some of my favorite quotes on this blog's current happy subject of death.

This one is a quote my Dad loves and pointed out to me years ago, by Jack London. Wow, it's good.

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

Then, here is Rich Mullins' own favorite song he wrote and which fit him so perfectly, he seemed to be a prophet as well. He was snatched from this life in a freak, sudden car accident, and I don't think it broke his heart to leave either.

Elijah

The Jordan is waiting for me to cross through
My heart is aging I can tell
So Lord, I'm begging
For one last favor from You
Here's my heart, take it where You will

This life has shown me how we're mended
And how we're torn
How it's okay to be lonely as long as you're free
Sometimes my ground was stoney
And sometimes covered up with thorns
And only You could make it what it had to be

And now that it's done
Well, if they dressed me like a pauper
Or if they dined me like a prince
If they lay me with my fathers
Or if my ashes scatter on the wind
I don't care

But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
Well, it'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye

There's people been friendly
But they'd never be your friends
Sometimes this has bent me to the ground
Now that this is all ending
I want to hear some music once again
'Cause it's the finest thing I have ever found

But the Jordan is waiting
Though I ain't never seen the other side
They say you can't take in
The things you have here
So on the road to salvation
I stick out my thumb and He gives me a ride
And His music is already falling on my ears

There's people been talking
They say they're worried about my soul
Well, I'm here to tell you I'll keep rocking
'Til I'm sure it's my time to roll
And when I do

But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
Well, it'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye

Psalm 40, and U2's version, must be part of my funeral/homegoing service, whatever it's called.

Psalm 40:1-5
1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is the man
who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods. [a]
5 Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.

And, this song by Rich has to be played.

Be With You
Rich Mullins

Everybody each and all
We're gonna die eventually
It's no more or less our faults
Than it is our destiny
So now Lord I come to you
Asking only for Your grace
You know what I've put myself through
All those empty dreams I chased

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?

And when You start this world over
Again from scratch
Will You make me anew
Out of the stuff that lasts?
Stuff that's purer than gold is
And clearer than glass could ever be
Can I be with You?
Can I be with You?

And everybody all and each
From the day that we are born
We have to learn to walk beneath
Those mercies by which we're drawn
And now we wrestle in the dark
With these angels that we can't see
We will move on although with scars
Oh Lord, move inside of me

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?

And when You blast this cosmos
To kingdom come
When those jagged-edged mountains
I love are gone
When the sky is crossed with the tears
Of a thousand falling suns
As they crash into the sea
Can I be with you?
Can I be with you?

Rich's comments on this song:
"I always like reviews that you get in magazines by people who don't have a clue as to what's going on. Not that I think I get necessarily bad reviews. I just think they criticize the wrong things about my albums. This guy said that this was a morose song, because it dealt with death. And he said, the rest of these songs are pretty nice on this album, but this one is really morose, and it's kind of maudlin, and it's about dying. You know, I think it's a bizarre thing that in the first century, Christians looked at death with a great anticipation. And in primitive Christianity, death was considered a wonderful time. That in the Old Testament, it says that we should celebrate the day of a man's funeral and not the day of his birth. And yet in sophisticated twentieth-century America, we look at all those church traditions and the wisdom of God, and we scoff at it. And we say that people who want to die are morbid. I don't particularly want to die because my life is bad, because I probably have the best life in the whole world. I don't have to work for a living or anything. When I left the farm - I grew up on a farm - and when I left, I said, 'God, do anything, but don't let me work.'"