"If I Forget Thee, O New Jerusalem. . ."

Shortly before his death, I heard Rush Limbaugh say that a recent study shows that there is a part of the human brain that causes us to “forget” that we are going to someday die. We do not totally and permanently forget, of course. We just ignore the inconvenient truth of our own mortality.

     Scientists theorize that this part of the brain enables us to go through life without being psychologically crippled by a constant overwhelming fear of death.

     I don’t know if the scientists are right about this or not, but it makes sense to me. Let me explain.

     Suppose an angel of God appeared to you right before sunrise and gave you this message:

     “Sometime today between sunrise and sunset, you are going to die. You might die a moment after the sun rises, or a moment before the sun sets, or sometime in between. But this will be your final day of life. So have a nice day.”

     If we knew that today was our final day of life, it would be very, very difficult to think about anything other than the certainty of our soon-coming death. Even if we believed in God and had the assurance that our sins were forgiven, it would still be very difficult to have a nice day with that cloud of uncertainty hanging over us.

     But in reality, our entire life is like that “final day.”  The sun rises when we are conceived and it sets when we die. For some, the sun sets before they are even born; for others it sets after more than a century; for most it sets sometime in between.

     We should not have a morbid obsession with death, but we should daily remember that we will someday die and answer to our Maker for what we did with the time He gave us on earth.

     “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Cor. 5:10f).

     During my entire adult life, hardly a day has gone by when I have not thought about the fact that I will someday die. Apparently that part of my brain that is supposed to make me “forget” about my mortality is not doing its job in me.

     But that’s okay with me. God forbid that I forget that I will someday die. Remembering that I must appear before the judgment seat of Christ helps keep me on the straight and narrow path, as does my anticipation of the New Jerusalem and my love for the Lord.

     As Johnny Cash put it, “Because you’re mine, I walk the line.”  And I add, “Because I’m Thine, I walk the line.”

| DB