Download - The Perfect Wisdom Web

Be Not Afraid Dyingsomething. Sometimes it was just one word; sometimesa whole sentence, but hurriedly spoken betweengasps, and hard to understand. His eyes were open,but he didn’t seem to see us any more: “This is a greatstruggle…You don’t know how tired I am! Pathetic…Don’t focus on…but on the spiritual.” And later: “Gottago…Jesus…Amazing! Very real…”After a pause, he added “I feel real bad, but I can’t doanything about it now.” We assured him that whateverhe regretted, he was forgiven; that God would take him;and that it would be very soon. Mark then asked forwater, and said, “Gonna go very shortly…One of my bestdays…”About an hour and a half later, he took his lastbreath.As Mark’s story shows, dying is a mystery beforewhich we can do little but stand in awe. If someone isfighting for life, we can uphold him and fight with him;if he seems ready to die, we can assure him that weunderstand, and release him. Beyond that, however, wemust get out of the way. I say this because ultimately,nothing is more crucial at the bed of a dying personthan an atmosphere of peace. And as long as we focuson ourselves and our attempts to ease his pain, we risk16