We need more funerals

When I was a kid, funerals were a yearly thing. Every year, and sometimes multiple times in a year, a relative would pass away and my family would attend the funeral.

The earliest one I can remember was my Great-Grandmother who died when I was 8. My grandpa had taken us to feed her and look after her since I can remember and his devotion to caring for her in that tiny trailer was awesome to see. At the funeral I distinctly remember the casket being open. I could see “Best Best Grandma” (my name for her because I called my grandma the best and then said Great-Grandma was best best: I was 5 people) and as she was lying there the reality of her being dead finally hit me.

The same could be said for my Great Uncle, Great Aunt, and on and on. They all reminded us of the finality of death. This life is finite. We all end up there in the casket and there will be folks looking at us one day….IT WILL HAPPEN. Knowing this at a young age, I think it helped me appreciate the time I had with everyone. I know it made my relationship with God more real. The stories in the Bible were true and real because we have seen the dead and we knew the choices we make will reverberate forever.

Today, sadly, Christianity is on the decline overall. Yes, there is a push in some age brackets thanks to many “influencers” who are saying they are Christian…but overall the numbers in churches across America is way down. To me the answer has multiple layers, but I can’t help but think one of those reasons is we do not take death seriously any longer.

There aren’t as many funerals, there are instead “celebrations of life” where everyone looks at a box of cremated remains not the face of a loved one who helped forge who they are today. No longer do we have to literally face death, we are now able to outsource it. We have the deceased cremated, we put them away, we hide the sting of death, and we deny ourselves something essential.

We deny our children, ourselves, and our families the opportunity to actually see death. So what? What is the harm in that? We must protect their fragile psyche! In a word: NO. No longer do we see death as a reality. Christ is a nice guy who had a great moral message, but we don’t need an actual savior! Sadly, no, tragically this is the prevailing mental state of America these days. We shelter people from death, we seclude them from pain, from funerals, from real life, from challenges, from the truth even.

Far too many are forced into an antiseptic world that denies death, denies tragedy, and denies real life struggles as we age. Then we wonder why Christianity has taken a nose dive? Really? They do not see death as real. Sure, they know they will die, but AI, or science, or new discoveries will prolong them to a utopian existence for I to the future.

It was just in the lifetime of my grandfather when a mother would have just 5 of 11 kids survive past 8 years old. In the 1800’s many would not name their child until they thought they would live long enough. Death was prevalent. God wasn’t some fantasy for weak people…HE was a necessity to make your life meaningful and so you could have the one true hope of Christ when you die…and that death could be this year!

Do I want us all to back to struggling with rampant disease, no immunizations, wars, and extreme poverty for the mass majority? Of course not. I am proud of how science has made our lives way better than any king had it 200 years ago.

I do think we could stand to have a wake up call now and again though. A day where we will have to answer to God for all we have done. We have as a society white washed death, given it fun little terms like “celebration of life”, “rainbow bridge”, or even “memorial service”. No. They died. They are rotting. They are facing judgement, and we have forgotten that.

So, we have a choice now. Do we continue to avoid death? Or do we face it now with clarity that it WILL be us there someday? Do we avoid the ugly serious truth? Do we have celebrations? Or are we truly mourning appropriately and having a serious conversation with our loved ones?

So long as people think Christianity is a crutch for the weak and fragile and do not see the true need for Christ as their savior, they will continue to go down that road to hell. There is no sugar coating it. You shall perish, die, tu es muerte, and when it happens it is too late to call on Jesus to save you. Live your life now, call on Christ now, then go live the life of love for God and serve to show the world how He loved you first.

I’d love to answer any questions you have if you wish to message me about the Gospel, Jesus, or how to be saved.

Love ya and Go Be Good Fruit