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 After viewing the greeting, return here to the Journal for articles covering the latest news from Embracing Life Ministries. Various members of the ELM team will be contributing each month.

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                   Quote of the Month 

 "You have to work hard at not thinking about death. Every time you have your blood drawn, swallow a pill, look in the mirror, you have to face death. Think how much energy it takes to deny it! But how can we face death and go on with our lives? Doesn't accepting death mean that we have given up living? Absolutely not! Is a good book or film any less enjoyable because we know it is going to end? Talking about death and trying to understand death can take the fear out of it. If we turn on a light in a dark room, suddenly all the shadows disappear."

HIV Positive: Living with AIDS, Debra Jarvis, p.38-39 

Preparing for Abundant Life

By Jonathan Hunter 

"Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys to death and Hades." (Rev. 1:18)

Try to imagine if you will, that glorious image of Jesus Christ, the Lord of LIFE standing before you surrounded by the radiance of His presence, holding the keys to the prison of death in His hand. Repeat when necessary to put your fears of death and dying in correct perspective. Jesus declares that no one or thing can claim to be our jail keeper anymore because the One who has triumphed over death, who exists for life and freedom FOREVER resides in us and we in Him!

An essential step in preparing for the abundant life and its fulfillment in union with Him in Heaven is accepting our own mortality. That entails acknowledging the universal experience of dying and death. In Session Five of ELS, we take on the issue of death and dying...as we must. To avoid the subject would only empower the "unmentionables" that naturally arise with life-altering conditions; they cry out to be addressed. The hurting ones who come to Embracing Life groups testify how the vagaries of their illness play into suppressed apprehensions they have of their preparedness for a deteriorating condition and most importantly, the question of caregivers.

After teaching and sharing by one of our leaders, we take the participants through a classic exercise involving a hypothetical situation where our doctor has given us a year to live. From there, the questions posed deal with how we will tell our loved ones the news, their reactions, our future goals/activities and who we think will be there (or not) to care for us in our infirmity.

It is not an easy exercise and certainly a lot is conjecture but everyone moves dutifully through it. When we come to the group share time, the answers are often heartfelt with tears, anger, and occasionally surprise. At the onset there is understandably resistance. However, when they complete it and hear the different responses, most feel a sense of accomplishment; the subject matter no longer remains unspoken. Together, with the Lord and their brother and sisters present, it's evident that no subject, not even death has lordship over them. Just so, the author of Hebrews writes:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who hold the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Heb. 2:14-15)