Death

Today a student stopped by my office for a conference. In the course of our discussion, she mentioned the number of people she knows who have died recently. It seems to have provoked a questioning of faith (I'm not sure where her faith was at to begin with). I wish I had more freedom to discuss faith issues with my students. I would have liked to have told her this:

We're going to die anyway, whether you believe in God or not--that's a given. Your choice is to believe that there IS some meaning to it all, and that one day you'll understand that meaning OR that there is no meaning...period. It's just a fact of life...period. Your choice is to believe that you will never, ever see your loved ones again OR that you will be with them again for eternity. The reality of the separation imposed by death in this life won't change if you reject God. In the face of loss, in the face of death, you have the power to hope, to believe, to be victorious OR you can choose to despair, to be overcome with grief, or at best to pick up the pieces and plod onward, knowing your own death waits inexorably in the wings; neither your death nor your life will have ultimate meaning.

This, folks, is the ultimate no-brainer. I wish I'd told her.