There are many types of losses, but none more seemingly final than the death of a loved one. Losing a game or a contest only feels final, until the next game or contest. But death is final---the end of a relationship. Or is it? Is that really "all there is?" Will I ever see my dear mother again? Is heaven for real?
I believe that heaven is real! (Read the book of the same title and, of course, The Bible to feed your faith.) I don't have to "degrief" or "go into my pain," or even "integrate [my] grief into who [I am] and into [my] body," as grief counselor, Ken Druck from San Diego suggests. Although my loss hurts physically at times, I am comforted with the knowledge that my mother has completed her time here on this earth and has followed Jesus into the next life with a new and better body. It's new and better because it experiences no pain or suffering, and it is not bound by time or space. (Read Chapter 7 in the New Testament Book of Revelations.) I rejoice for my mother's new freedom! Yet I'll never stop missing her presence until I join her in heaven with own my new body. Until then, I choose to take care of this earthly body by practicing healthy breathing techniques, such as "Alternate Nostril Breathing," also called Nadi Sodhana Pranayama, in order to clear and cleanse my mind and my nerves.
Followers of Jesus Christ---otherwise known as Christians---believe that we will "follow" Christ in every sense of that word. Jesus lead the way in His death and resurrection to reveal our future with Him. That means that although we suffer and die, we also will rise again. This promise is made by Jesus himself found in the Book of John in The Holy Bible: "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this?"
(John 11:25-26, KJV)
For those who step out in faith and choose to believe the words of Jesus, death is NOT the end, but rather the beginning of an eternity of joy with the Lord and other believers! If this perspective sounds like a "happily ever after" fairytale, you underestimate your value to the Creator of all. We were created in His image and for the purpose of choosing to have an eternal relationship with Him. We are also promised a new body like Christ's that is not bound by time or space, just as when He walked through the wall of the upper room where the disciples were mourning His death because they did not yet understand the concepts of a new body with eternal life. Later the apostle Paul began to get it when he wrote this rather lengthy explanation in I Corinthians 15: 35-54, KJV:
"But some will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or some other grain; But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body....There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial...so also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised inpower; It is sown in a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body...And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly,...In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."
Please read and ruminate these biblical passages until next week when my blog will return to the format of describing how to yoke the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of "Alternate Nostril Breathing" in order to clear and purify this body's nervous system. Until then....
Namaste, plf
