Death is the New Birth Part 2

I believe in life after death. Mostly, I believe that our essence is something that can neither be created or made. Our lifesource is an energy form that has existed for as long as things have been in existence, so who knows how long that is… infinity? I do not believe our “souls” have a beginning or an end.

Is that strange?

I also don’t believe that God “created” the Earth from nothing. I believe something existed and He merely “organized” it into something with a power that we cannot explain or completely understand, I call it Priesthood; or the power of God given to man. I also believe that all these things can be explained via science. This is why miracles can be dismissed because sometimes there is an explanation; God has to follow laws, after all. I do not believe that science has all the answers. I do not believe that all theories are Truth, they are what they say they are; theories. When something becomes Truth then the behavior of God can be explained, thus we see an absence of a belief in miracles.

Faith is that leap between being able to prove something with science and believing in miracles. I believe in miracles.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Unfortunately, we are a product of our “creation” in that we are mortal and thus subject to the frailties of mortality; illness, injury, death.  Why do people get cancer? Some of the answers are in the environment or in our personal behavior or choices. Others are stamped in our DNA as part of our creation. This is why some people are born with predispositions to be addicts, unhealthy or other genetically linked weaknesses. God did not “create” us this way, our ancestors “created” us, on some levels. I also believe that some of our characteristics come with us.

I believe that we lived before we were born. At some point in the eternities a loving father (and mother) gave us a spiritual body. It probably looked similar to what our bodies look like now but without flesh, bone or blood. Our essence, our “energy” was changed to a thinking, functioning, intelligent being. We made friends. We had families. We made choices. We wanted bodies so we agreed to this plan to come to this alternate sphere (as opposed to a parallel universe) to gain our bodies and live in mortality. 

So dying, in a sense, is going back home.

When I read The Message (and reviewed here) I was struck by the beauty of the idea of seeing and being with family again. Being with loved ones. I believe they are busy doing things. Doing things for us, doing things for others that have gone before. I believe they are happy. I believe that death, funerals, the celebratory process is more about the survivors than about those that have gone on. We are left to cope and adjust the new normal that is thrust upon us.

I have experienced this traumatic unexpected loss of loved ones as well as losing someone who was sick and expected to pass. Either way is difficult. Admittedly it is more difficult to accept and move on from someone who dies in a tragic or unanticipated way but both are difficult. Both are losses that make you ache. Not because you are surprised but because you are still the one left behind.

There is some comfort in the idea of someone dying and believing they are happy, in a beautiful place and continuing to live a productive life. However, they are not with us and that is the trial. That is the difficult part. It’s not about worrying if they are happy, not for me, it’s about missing them. It’s about not being able to introduce my children. It’s about missing that relationship. Missing the person just because you miss them.

I look forward to death. I am not seeking my death but I am not afraid. I have people on the other side I want to see. What I don’t want to do is cause someone here any pain, but I suppose unless I completely withdraw from society, someone will be sad when I pass. If I am loved, I will be missed. And I want to be loved. I believe I am loved. So I’m not ready to go yet, but I have no fear.

If someday you read this and I have passed on you can know that I am happy. I am happy to be with my brothers, my grandmother, my friends, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law… and so many others that I miss dearly. I look forward to the day when we can all live together in our Heavenly Home and experience the next phase of our existence.