hey beloveds,
i am clearing out my old drafts in my blog. here’s some stuff that i started working on and then didn’t finish. there’s going to be a lot, so it will take some time. the only change i am making is to give this little introduction at the beginning, brief comment at the end, and then to add “graveyard posts [#]:” to the beginning of what the title is saved as. there will be lines separating the post i drafted and these intros and conclusions. so enjoy this look at how my mind has worked overtime.
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:54b-55
Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?
Context: New chaplaincy job, hospice, and a good death
Those of you who know me personally know that I recently began a new job. I am now a hospital chaplain with St. Bernard’s Medical Center in Jonesboro Arkansas. It has been a bit of a learning curve these first several weeks on the job since my primary training in seminary has to do with preaching rather than chaplaincy.
Nevertheless, I am starting to start to get the hang of things.
Maybe by this time next month I will have actually started to get the hang of things.
One of the reasons for such disorientation is the endless series of questions that arise in my heart and mind as I carry out my work as a chaplain.
After a team education training on “A Good Death,” one of the questions on the forefront of my mind is this:
What is a good death?
And:
Does such a thing even exist at all?
One of the goals of the widely popular hospice industry is to help people have a good death. But when I first heard this I was shocked and appalled.
Isn’t death a bad thing? So then how could you possibly have a good death? That’s an oxymoron! Like Jumbo shrimp or Tennessee football (Sorry to my Brother-in-law… you know I don’t really like sports anyway right?).
And yet, you will see this language out there if you search for it1It used to be quite common to talk about how one wanted to die (i.e. a good death). It is a common discussion in ancient pastoral manuals. : a good death.
We can face our deaths with dignity and courage and that is a good death. We can face our deaths with dignity and courage because the sting of death has been taken away from us by the work of Christ on the cross.
We do not fear death. We respect it though and we all must die until Christ comes again. Death is after all, the last enemy to be defeated (1 Cor. 15:26).
Death no longer has a sting, but it is still a reality we must face as we await the coming new creation.
Have the discussion with your family. What does a good death look like to you? It’s a unique choice for each individual and family. We tend to get our ideas of what a good death is or is not based on how we have seen our family members die.
So have the discussion ahead of time and aim for the death you would prefer to die.
this is more written out than most of the other drafts i have been publishing!
a.
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