Most people would view the premise of death as something negative, but really, for me, death exciting, exhilarating, heart racing and God’s voice calling you home. I have come close to meeting death twice. There was a difference between both of those experiences. The first one, I was not prepared the second I was.
How can you be prepared for death? Easy. You know where you are prepared when you know where you are going and you know why. When I was eight or nine years old, I almost drowned in Lake Michigan trying to be a hero. That night, I felt like a failure and wished that I had drowned. A few years later, at my baptism, I realized why God had kept me alive. I wasn’t ready to die. He was willing to give me a second chance, for I had gone far from God and really wasn’t sure where I was. I decided to go back to God two years ago, and though it has been hard, I know that if I die, because Christ came for me, a hapless sinner who  hated him, I don’t have to be afraid to die.
This summer, I had the awesome privilege of climbing up Sugar Loaf Mountain in Marquette Michigan. There was one side that I was free climbing up. It was about forty-five feet up and if I fell, I would be falling on sharp rocks. Knowing the danger, I etched a cross in the rockside and prayed, as I always did before a climb, and committed myself to God if I should fall. That is not to say that I wasn’t confident. I was full of the confidence that God gave me to climb that cliff-side. I was about 20 feet up when my left hand slipped and I started to fall. Most people would have screamed, but I only gritted my teeth. I wasn’t sure, but I was strangely put to ease. I’m sure that I would have been scared, but it only seemed like another climb to me. God decided that it was not my time to leave this earth, so, by his grace, I landed on a shelf that jutted out three inches. Three inches is tiny, but it was enough to hold my 145 lbs. frame.
I’m not afraid of death. I am afraid of the effects of my death. The people that I could have known. The people that could have touched me. That  people that I could have touched. How would the effects of my death effect the world? I have to smile when I think about dying and my fears of the after effects when I remember that God has all things in his hands. He is not removed from any situation. If he has the imagination to die for me, an obscure mess of a child, on a cross, I know that he will take care of me, no matter what happens. No matter how I die, I know that God will be there to catch me when it is time.
I am not scared of death. I am excited. Though I do not want to leave now, I have in mind that heaven is going to be far more glorious, i. Death is not the end. It is the beginning. If you believed in God as your Lord and Savior, you have the security of knowing that you will be able to dance with God forever in Heaven. However, if you rejected God all your life and death comes knocking, you have reason to worry. Instead of the Beautiful Celestial City, you will have to spend eternity in Hell. I know that no one wants to think of Hell or even death, but it is a reality and the choices that you make regarding your acceptance in Christ or not.