“Death is a thief”

“Lord, now let your servant depart in peace.” Simeon in Luke 2

“I wish I would’ve had the chance to say ‘goodbye’.”

How much time did you spend preparing for Christmas and the holidays?

How much time have you spent preparing for this new year?

How much time do you spend planning vacations or other important life events?

And now the big one:  How much time do you spend preparing for death?

It seems we spend a lot of time preparing for those things that are trivial and transient, and very little for the eternal.

Why am I starting my New Year blog on such a melancholy or morose note?  Primarily two reasons.

The first is because of waking up on New Year’s Day and being greeted by reports of the mass murder and mayhem in New Orleans. The second is because I received an email yesterday from an old friend informing me that her husband had suddenly died of a heart attack three days after Christmas.  The uncertainty of life and prospect of death is a sobering reminder that this life as we know it can end at any time.  Which is why the example of Simeon is so pertinent.  Simeon was prepared to depart . . . in peace.

Three times in just a few verses mention is made of The Spirit. His spirit was filled with the Spirit of God.  Pretty important, wouldn’t you say, seeing that when we die our body goes to the ground or dust, and it is our spirit, the very breath of life, that continues to live.  It is by nurturing the spirit with The Spirit that we, like Simeon, prepare to depart in peace.

The Spirit enables Simeon to depart in peace by gracing him with the gift of patience.  We see him regularly doing to the temple seeking out the Lord’s Messiah.  I’m guessing he did this for years.  He was waiting upon the Lord.  But more, he was arranging his life, his routine, his priorities around the Lord.  I find myself too frequently doing just the opposite—trying to fit God into my schedule, my agenda, my activities. When we die all of “this” will be gone, and only one thing will remain:  God.  So preparing to depart means patiently placing God in the center, not on the periphery.  And doing so we patiently wait for the Lord to come to us.

The Spirit also graces Simeon with devotion.  His devotion is evident in his words and actions.  Simeon, without a doubt, practiced his devotion in prayer and worship.  The two go together.  We might think of worship as the act of going to church on Sunday—and it can be that.  But worship is much more!  Worship is the ongoing act of living in the awareness of the Presence of God, in a very intimate and meaningful way.  It is taking The Christ in our arms and embracing Him.  Sometimes this is done by embracing others, or nature, or silence. 

The Spirit graces Simeon with simplicity.  I’ve never seen a U-haul following a hearse.  And yet it seems the obsession with things is a deception that leads one to believe that the more we have the better insulated we are from death.  Without exception the example set by those who live in the Spirit and die with the Spirit is that simplicity is essential.  Not just simplicity of externals, but simplicity of heart.  For a long time my morning practice was to read and ingest as much “spiritual matter” as possible.  In recent years my practice has changed dramatically, so that the morning quiet time is not filled with “stuff”, but with quiet, stillness, and making space for God to speak.  My parents, who lived through the depression, would often-times speak of how little they had, but how filled with love they were.  I  believe that to be applicable to our spiritual lives.  “Blessed are the poor in Spirit” the Lord said.

So how then, are you preparing for the New Year?

How do you nurture your spirit?

How might you live in patience and devotion?

What is it in your life, your spiritual life, that needs simplified?                                                                                                              

 Prayer: “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word.  For mine eyes have seen your salvation. . .”