DEATH AS A DARE

(Post by: Madie Hobbs)

Have you ever wondered where the point of doing something lies when there is no sure chance of winning?

I often ask myself this question. When you frequently work with something as fickle as the human soul, you learn to get used to the fact that no matter how much you dislike it, life is often a longer experience of losing than it is of winning.

So, what’s the point?

The answer is simple: the point is to suffer.

Not exactly what you wanted to hear, I’m sure, but there we have it. Suffering is our highest calling, our most completing work, our second greatest privilege.

What is the greatest privilege, you ask?

Well, that is another simple answer. Our greatest privilege is to die for a cause.

Yet another grim reality, I’m afraid, but a fulfilling one all the same.

We see this displayed most prominently in the life of Jesus, who understood that His sole purpose for coming to earth was to suffer and die. I imagine a great deal of suffering took place for Jesus prior to the actual beatings and humiliation before, ultimately, His death. Think of the immense pain one would feel, looking upon a scene of your closest friends, laughing together, reminiscing perhaps, and all the while you sense so keenly your looming destiny. It is a fate no one can escape, but we can dictate how we meet it.

This week I picked up a work of ancient literature I’ve been promising myself I would read for quite some time. The poem is The Iliad, by Homer. I’ll be honest, I’ve read the beginning of it before, and then promptly moved on to something else. I like to tell myself I just wasn’t ready to read it, although I’m not sure how true that really is.

Regardless of my reasonings, I now consider myself well prepared and began this go around with the introduction rather than jumping straight into the text.

As I read, I was reminded of how all ancient literature is usually one long recollection of glorious death, victory and defeat in battle, and a longing for home. One thing the author of this introduction I’m coming to love pointed out, was that when death is mentioned in this poem, it is in a very specific light.

He says, “Death is neither abhorred nor celebrated in this world, however. Instead, just as The Iliad distills the Trojan saga into a few days of intense fighting, it crystalizes by means of this one theme – death in battle – the essence of what it means to be human. Life is a struggle each person will ultimately always lose; the question is how one acts with that knowledge.”

I don’t know about you, but this was the reality check I needed. Over the past month, death has been a prominent topic of consideration in my life. When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the grief and inspiration I felt mingled together within me was nothing short of indescribable. While his death was tragic, it held with it a question.

How will you meet death?

When Charlie took his last breath here and his next breath in heaven, without so much as a second to consider the fact that death now stood before him, he walked in freedom into the Kingdom, with the full ability to look Jesus in the eye and say, “I was just talking about you.”

How many of us would be able to honestly say the same, if death stood before us now?

Life is a struggle we will all ultimately lose. But how do we act now armed with that knowledge?

I don’t know about you, but my life has taught me that if suffering and death had to be intimately connected to the life of our Savior, I should not expect it to be exempt from mine.

I choose to behave in such a way that death is a dare, staring me down, asking me to live to my fullest potential. I plan to make it tremble when it comes to take me, while the mission of my life is fresh on my lips.

“Then out spake brave Horatius,

The Captain of the gate:

‘To every man upon this earth

Death cometh soon or late.

And how can man die better

than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers,

and the temples of his gods…’”

~ Thomas Babington Macualay