My Greatest Fear

 

"Do you fear death? Not in particular the action causing it, but the permanent state that exists afterwards?"  A guy asked this on Facebook, and it set off a high-speed train of thought.  His views differ from mine, I suppose.  I'm definitely a Christian, and he stated he was not.  But because of this, I believe that upon death, I'll end up in one of two places.  I believe the outcome is mostly dependent on how well I lived my life and God's mercy.  I hope and pray that I end up in Heaven.

Now, a lot of my readers might not share those beliefs.  I wanted to explain one thought to you.  It is one I've brought up in the past.  There's this thing called the Pascal's wager.  I'm going to explain it like this:  Let's pretend that guy walks up to you and gives you six lottery tickets for free.  Let's say that these tickets are those Illinois Lottery scratch-offs and if each one gives you a chance to win some good cash.  Now, you have two choices.  You could say, "No way man, I don't want those tickets."  If you do that, though, you don't gain anything.  You lose the chance of winning.  If you accept the tickets, you actually don't lose a thing, but you gain the chance of winning.  Now, this isn't the main reason why I believe in Heaven or an afterlife.  But it's an awfully logical reason why you should.

What's the harm in believing?  If you do, and there is, you'll be satisfied and prepared beyond all means.  If there isn't, you could argue disappointment, but if you die and there is no afterlife, you wouldn't know the difference, really.  If you choose not to... I just feel like death looks so much worse.

They say that goodbyes are the worst when you know you'll never say hello again.  It seems, and it becomes more noticeable as we carry on, that death is everywhere.  Sometimes we'll feel like we might be outliving a lot of the people around us.  I like to believe, though, that someday I'll meet them again.  It makes accepting their passing on a lot easier, and I have more peace in hope that the next world is a better place.

A lot of Christian's will offer this question to promote the existence of Heaven: what's the point of life if there's no Heaven?  So, I ask... What's the point of life if there is?  I'm not negating its existence, but saying Heaven doesn't exist to give life a point, necessarily.  I don't like to view it as that.  Some can say life is a testing ground to get to Heaven.  I say the point of life is to live, experience, love and grow beyond all measure and I believe that Heaven is the sum of all those good things.

Anyway.

And no, I'm not telling you to be Christian.  I'm asking you to consider a world beyond this one.  Not just a Christian afterlife, but an afterlife, period.  And that's about it for my little rant on the Pascal Wager.  Let's get back to that guy's question.

I don't fear dying.  I don't fear death, not necessarily.  And as a Christian, I don't know if I'm going to Heaven or not.  I hope so.

I think I fear the same thing he does; I fear leaving behind a world that I didn't positively impact to my best ability.  My greatest fear isn't death, but upon dying I leave no fingerprints of my existence behind me.  So, in order to make up for that, I try to live every day and impact every person I meet positively, whether big or small.  Check out my post on the Butterfly Effect, here.

However, I believe in God and my faith suggests that there is something beyond this world.  Besides that, I believe it because I want to and I hope it is so.

Anyway, what are your thoughts?  What's your answer to this question?

Thanks for reading! :)

Random Fact of the Day: Apples are apparently more efficient in keeping people awake than caffeine is.  I'm still going to choose Red Bull.