Not Dying To Know About The Afterlife

This past week my mother and I got to talking about death and funerals, and I started mentioning certain things that I would want at my funeral. She advised me to write it all down, so this afternoon I took the time to type out my funeral plans; the pallbearers, officiants, all of it.  As I said to my friends, it's an exercise that's one part morbid and three parts narcissism. But heck, I enjoyed it!

When it comes to the afterlife, I used to have it all figured out. Because I blurted out a sentence as a 7 year old saying that I accepted Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Saviour, I'd be going to heaven. That's all it took.  And what did heaven look like? I took certain parts of the Bible, and then added in some very popular but non-Biblical ideas.  There would be streets of gold, everyone would have a mansion, there would be choirs, there would be no crying there.  Then I added in the widely-held belief that I'd see all my loved ones who had died before me and we'd all be happy.  It's a nice thought, but I don't think that we find that in the Bible.  It's also unclear as to if one goes to the afterlife immediately after death. There is wide-spread belief that that is the case, and it is preached perhaps to soften the blow of death. But one could interpret the Bible as saying that we are instead raised at a later date.

Ask me what I believe about the afterlife now, and it's much simpler. First of all I say "I don't know," and then I follow that up with, "I believe that I came from Love, I live in Love, and one day I will die into Love."  Anything else is mere conjecture to me.

I don't think that we should spend much time thinking about the afterlife. One thing that we are learning as humans in 2012 is that "being present" is key to lowering the avalanche of stress that we are often faced with. We should not be preoccupied with what happens when we take our last earthly breath. Indeed, we should not be worried about tomorrow, because as a wise man once said "Tomorrow will worry about itself."  All I should worry about is today, and I shouldn't even worry about it; I should enjoy it.

I am here.

I am here at a coffee shop.

I am here at a coffee shop enjoying my double-creamed, double-sugared coffee.

I am sitting in a comfortable booth with nice padding.

I just thoroughly enjoyed a jazzed up version of Lesley Gore's It's My Party that was playing over the sound system.

I have the opportunity to write and to freely share my thoughts on the Internet.

I will do my best to enjoy today. I am not dying to know about the afterlife.