death Archives - Being Me, Myself.

Life in the Light of Death

By Ife J. Ibitayo

Unfortunately, I’ve lived long enough to have my share fair of brushes with death. One particularly vivid near-death experience happened the day after I was accepted into graduate school. I went for a walk in my neighborhood. I suddenly heard a crack! of metal crashing past metal, and I turned around just in time to see a SUV barreling toward me. I leaped out of the way at the last second. The car flew past me, flattened a yield sign, then crashed into a tree. In a daze, I registered, I could have died.

Death is Lurking

In the Bible, Jesus tells a parable about a wealthy business owner. His business was so successful that his greatest difficulty in life was figuring out how to store all his earnings (Luke 12:16-19). But God suddenly appeared to the man and said, “‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself’” (Luke 12:20)?

This is a haunting question. Most of us live as if we have an eternity left here on this earth, but death is always lurking in the background, a specter that could sneak up on us at any moment. When it does what will become of everything we worked so hard to earn?

Life is Short

We all know that our trophies, accolades, promotions, and investments will perish as soon as we hit the dirt, yet we pursue them anyway because we live with the illusion of time. “I can see my grandparents next month.” “We can go on date night next weekend.” “I can tuck my kids in tomorrow.” While we rack up the Benjamins today. But tomorrow won’t always come. Life will be far shorter than most of us anticipate.

Death Encourages Life

So what then? If life is short, is it meaningless? Does death nullify the point of our existence? No, it’s quite the opposite. The Bible exhorts us: “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works: Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head. Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun…for this is your portion in life and in your labor under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 9:7-9). Ironically, death does not erase life but encourages us to make the most of it.

“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.”

(Ecclesiastes 5:18)

I My Cross Have Taken (A Day in the Life of a Dead Man Walking Pt. 1)

By Ife J. Ibitayo

“[Jesus] said to them all, ‘Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me’” (Luke 9:23).

In no starker way could Christ have highlighted the steep cost of accepting Him as both Lord and Savior. In The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer thundered, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” Yet this truth does not resonate with my life here in America. I’ve never gone hungry or lived on the streets. I attended private schools and charter schools throughout my childhood. My greatest fear as a Christian is being criticized or ostracized not imprisonment or death. So why does Christ warn that following Him will cost us everything?

The Cross Jesus Carried

The answer lies in the very person of Jesus Christ Himself. Less than a day before His death, He said, “‘Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many’” (Mark 10:45). Jesus’ entire life was marked by self-sacrifice. He stepped down from perfection and clothed Himself in corruption (Philippians 2:7). He was born in obscurity, lived in paucity, and died in ignominy. He chose the hard life when He could have had the high life. And as “little-Christs”, we are called to do the same.

My Cross to Carry

Even here in the most comfortable country in the world, the bid to “come and die” is both powerful and tangible. It may involve something as drastic as “selling all we have” like Jesus called the rich young ruler to do (Matthew 19:21). But it’ll often look more like the story of the Good Samaritan:

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side…But a Samaritan, as he traveled…saw him and took pity” (Luke 10:30-33).

The call to die is often as simple as caring enough to not walk on by. I know caring is expensive in our hectic, fast-paced world. Caring may require our time, our energy, or even our money. But we can’t carry the world on one shoulder and the cross on the other. We must lay one down if we want to take up the other.

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

(Ephesians 5:1-2)

The Heroine Kokofe

By Ife J. Ibitayo

My short story “The Heroine Kokofe” has been published and narrated in the 833 episode of Escape Pod! This is my first professional publication, and I especially enjoyed writing this story because it sits at the intersection of my two passions–faith and fiction:

Escape Pod 833: The Heroine Kokofe

Story Excerpt

Muhamolu clapped his hands together and said, “We have gathered here today for the Agba of Kokofe Lalarun. If she defeats her demon, she will be a full adult in our community when she returns. If she does not, she will be an outcast forever. It only remains for God’s Ori to provide her target. God’s will be done.

“Ori,” Muhamolu boomed, his voice echoing across the village square, “tell us your will!”

A faint, humanoid emanation appeared in front of the Kwanza’s head. It was the buggy remnants of the spacecraft’s AI, to Kokofe at least. But the villagers bowed as reverently to it as God Himself. Kokofe also sank to her knees. Of all days, today she’d need as many allies as she could get.

“For whom?” Ori said, in a deep, resonant voice. As it flickered in and out, it locked eyes on Muhamolu. The chief fixed his gaze on the dirt in somber respect.

Baba gently pushed Kokofe forward and whispered, “Say your name.”

Kokofe cleared her voice and said with as much confidence as she could muster, “Moyororokokofe Lalarun!”

“Processing,” Ori said, and it vanished for a minute. Kokofe had always wondered what it did when it disappeared. The strange cross-referencing associations it made between the colonists’ names and the colony’s animals was still very much beyond her. It returned and said, “Akata.” A hologram of a humongous hairless canine with savage fangs and the Devil’s eyes glared down at them.

An old woman shrieked, and someone muttered in their native tongue of Yoruhili, “The accursed have no luck.”

“God’s Ori has spoken!” Muhamolu boomed, but there was a quaver in his voice. “His will be done.”

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Yrq3w1BkSmmaGZ9geXfk5?si=9aa812a50d5b4ee6

Remembered Sin or Resurrected Faith (Life After Death Pt. 1)

By Ife J. Ibitayo

Death is the last villain–the final boss–in the story of our lives. Death is guaranteed for all of us, but second life is not. Resurrection is as rare as unicorns, so whenever God rescues someone from the dead, He is clearly trying to send us a message.

Remembered Sin

During the middle of a famine, Elijah—the greatest prophet of the Old Testament—was sent to live with a widow. Her son died soon after he arrived. She railed against Elijah, “‘O man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son’” (1 Kings 17:18 NLT)?

God has baked into our bones the knowledge of our own sinfulness. And when tragedy strikes, we often believe that we’re receiving our just deserts. Maybe your parents divorced and you think that if you had only been a better daughter, they might have stayed together. Maybe you have a friend who committed suicide and you wonder if you would have been able to save them if only you had cared enough to call. Maybe you’re sifting through the ruins of your own troubled life and you can’t stop seeing all the little bombs you set—the TNT of immaturity and the C-4 of pride.

This widow knew the darkness of her own heart and believed her day of reckoning had come.

Resurrected Faith

But God had a better word for her. Elijah whisked off the corpse and cried out to the LORD. The prayer of God’s righteous saints has great power while its working (James 5:16): to heal, to restore, and yes, even to raise the dead. Elijah cried out to God, and God reached down to him and restored the life of the boy he was praying over (1 Kings 17:19-22).

When Elijah returned the revived son to his mother, he said, ‘Look, your son is alive!’ Then the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth’” (1 Kings 17:24). The point of the death of the widow’s son was not to emphasize her sinfulness but to strengthen her faith.

Forgotten Miracle

Yet the widow’s son had been on the verge of death once before. A few Bible verses earlier, this same widow had been preparing the last supper for her family. Using the last of the flour in her house, they were going to eat and die (1 Kings 17:12).
But then Elijah showed up on her doorstep and gave her a word from God: “‘“There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crows grow again”’” (1 Kings 17:14 NLT)!

They were living off this very miracle when the widow’s son fell ill. God’s word had already proven true while the widow’s son was still alive, yet it took his death for her to be fully convinced.

Conclusion

We will be tempted to forget God’s faithfulness from yesterday if tragedy strikes close to home tomorrow. But don’t let the miraculous grow mundane in your life. Don’t let fear override faith. Remember that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and every word He speaks is true.

“Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise His holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things He does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!”

(Psalm 103:1-5 NLT)

A Miracle Too Late (Jesus and His People Pt. 2)

By Ife J. Ibitayo

For Part 1 on “A Different Jesus”, click here.

The world is thrashing in the grip of a mighty pandemic, crumbling under the weight of a reeling economy, and stretching to its snapping point because of geopolitical tensions. The evidence of God has vanished for many, and the question has surfaced, “If He even showed up now, would it be too late?”

A family thousands of years ago asked the same question. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were some of Jesus’ closest friends. But when Lazarus fell deathly ill, Jesus didn’t arrive until His good friend was thoroughly dead.

The Accusation

When Jesus finally waltzed into town, several days too late, both Mary and Martha told Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21,32 NIV). They implied that if He had only set out a little earlier, tried a little harder, maybe cared a little more, their brother would have still been alive.

These kinds of accusations are not unique to this family. The Bible is filled with accounts of suffering men and women wondering where God was. Job, the most righteous man in the Eastern Hemisphere while he was alive, cried out to God, “‘Why do You hide your face and consider me your enemy’” (Job 13:24 NIV)? The prophet Jeremiah, in the middle of a life-leeching drought, questioned God, “Are you also confused? Is our champion helpless to save us” (Jeremiah 14:9 NLT)? King David, from a pit of great despair screamed, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me” (Psalm 22:1 NIV)?

The Answer

Jesus responded to this veiled allegation, “‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this'” (John 11:26 NIV)? In essence, Jesus told Martha that He was still the answer—life—to her problem—death.

The Christian walk, just like most great undertakings, starts off easy but gets considerably harder over time. When we are first raised to new life by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, many of us will “taste and see that the Lord is good”. Mini-miracles will color our weeks and neon bursts of joy will liven our hearts.

But then the weight of our demanding boss will return, our wayward children will continue rebelling, or an emergency will rock us to our core. Many who’ve attended Sunday School know that Jesus is always The Answer even before the question is asked, but after tragedies like these strike, we must answer whether we truly believe this.

The Command

Moved by compassion at the sight of the sisters’ tears, Jesus asked them where they’d lain Lazarus’ corpse. Once He arrived there, He commanded them to move aside the stone sealing the entrance to Lazarus’ tomb. Martha said, “But Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days” (John 11:39 CSB). Why would Martha even mention this? She believed there was a high likelihood that when they rolled the stone away, Lazarus would still be dead.

Miracles are rarely free. They require risk and cost: sending out that application, taking out that loan, putting one’s reputation and credibility on the line, or inhaling the sickening aroma of defeat if God doesn’t come through. This was the tension that Martha was struggling with. But Jesus told her, “‘Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God’” (John 11:40 ESV)? If we never embrace the risk, we will never see the reward. Only those who take that terrifying leap will see God do only what God can do.

Conclusion

Mary and Martha’s friends took a step of faith and rolled away the stone. When they did, Jesus cried out, “‘Lazarus, come out.’” (John 11:43). Then the mummified man emerged from the tomb and returned to the land of the living!

Jesus had been too late to heal the sick Lazarus, but He hadn’t been too late to raise the dead one. Similarly, just because our day by day situation seems to be going from bad to worse doesn’t mean it’s become too challenging for God. It just means the miracle will be all the more glorious.

“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.”

(Isaiah 59:1 NIV)