BLOG 2/21/17. ANXIETY OVER DEATH … OR, REJOICING IN HOPE
So, today is my birthday, and as difficult as it is to comprehend, it is my 89th birthday. That means that I’m standing at the threshold of my 90th year. Wow! I entitled my (privately published) memoirs a few years ago: Journey Into Laughter, because I could never have conceived the crazy events that have shaped my life. But now, I am walking through the epilogue passage of my life—who’s fooling whom? But that ineluctably brings me/us to the subject of death and dying.
Some psychiatrists say that there are three major anxieties that are common to all humankind: 1) the anxiety over the meaning of life; 2) the anxiety over acceptance; and 3) the anxiety over death. Who am I? Who cares? And, what happens when I die? Sadly, most contemporary hymnbooks have diminished the number of great hymns on death, and God’s design in Christ to give us great hope for this life and the next. But I’m an incorrigible hymn lover, … so on my 89th birthday let me share three of them (in part) with you. (You can track them down, in full on Cyber Hymns on your search engine).
One sweetly solemn thought
Comes to me o’er and o’er;
Nearer to my home today am I
Than e’er I’ve been before.
Nearer the bound of life
Where burdens are laid down;
Nearer to leave the heavy cross,
Nearer to gain the crown.
Then there’s:
The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of Heaven breaks;
The summer morn I’ve sighed for—the fair, sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand,
And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.
O Christ, He is the fountain, the deep, sweet well of love!
The streams of earth I’ve tasted more deep I’ll drink above:
There to an ocean fullness His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.
And Bernard of Cluny’s:
Jerusalem the golden, With milk and honey blest,
Beneath your contemplation Sink heart and voice oppressed.
I know not, oh, I know not What joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory, What bliss beyond compare.
On this 89th birthday this guy is rejoicing in that great hope, and Christ’s infinite love. Peace!
