Discussing Death at the Public Library

This past Tuesday I went to a book discussion at the West Chester library.  The book was Irvin Yalom’s Staring at the Sun:  Overcoming the Terror of Death (2007). Yalom writes from a secular vantage point; there’s no God in the picture as he ponders life and death.

I found this jarring, especially two days after celebrating Jesus’ resur­rection and his victory over death itself:  here was an author looking death in the eye but with no hope of deliverance.

For Yalom, the best we can do with death is face up to it.  His thesis is that many people lead “unlived lives” because they’re obsessed (even if unconsciously) with this ominous reality.  Better to creatively harvest the fruits of our foreknowledge of death:  even though dying destroys us, the idea of death can “save” us.  For instance, we can fulfill our lives and leave traces of “immortality” by how we positively affect others—by “rippling” (i.e., like ripples in a pond, the impact of our lives can expand outward long after we breathe our last).

Again, this earth-bound, godless vision was disturbing to behold.  I do appreciate Yalom’s challenge to look death squarely in the eye rather than pretend it’s not out there.  And I agree with him that one of the best gifts we can offer the grieving is simply our presence.  But for all who belong to Jesus the idea of facing up to death and being present with the grieving is profoundly different than it is for Yalom!  We look mortality in the eye because we know it is a defeated enemy:  “O death, where is your sting?”  And we give the gift of presence to grieving Christians in a way that encourages them to run to and call upon our Heavenly Father, who has saved us for an abundant life in his eternal presence!

Still, it was helpful for me to enter Yalom’s world.  After all, it’s the same world so many of our neighbors and co-workers and classmates inhabit.  And it’s good for us to see with their eyes for a moment, even if the view is bleak and grim:  reminds us of their serious need to hear and our urgent obligation to share the saving, forgiving, hope-instilling eternal love of Christ.  So, who is it in your world that needs your death-defying presence this week?  As the risen Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21).