{"id":294,"date":"2010-07-15T21:47:57","date_gmt":"2010-07-15T21:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=294"},"modified":"2010-07-15T21:47:57","modified_gmt":"2010-07-15T21:47:57","slug":"something-died-to-give-me-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=294","title":{"rendered":"Something Died to Give Me My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn most cases, something has died to give us life.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Norman Grubb<\/font><\/p>\n

I\u2019m one hour out from being at the funeral of a great man. And I\u2019m a few seconds removed from having read the above statement. So forgive me as I sit in the space that these two events have suddenly and surprisingly created within me as I ponder the relation of death to my life.<\/p>\n

How dependent I am on death for life! <\/p>\n

For me to have the leather for my shoes, death was required. For me to have the cotton for my clothes, death was required. For me to have the wood for my desk, death was required. For me to have the food that I will consume today, to sustain my very existence, death was required. For me to have a roof over my head, death was required. Even the oxygen I breath in every moment gives its existence completely up so that I might live.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s embedded in the fabric of my daily experience. I\u2019m completely dependent on death to have life.<\/p>\n

And this may be the first time I\u2019ve acknowledged it with such awareness and gratitude.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the thing, I think. Awareness and gratitude. These days, people have divided into opposing camps: some people fight for the rights of those things that are dying to give man his life, some people fight for the rights of man to kill those things to have the life he has.<\/p>\n

Both sides have merits, I think. I don\u2019t want things to die for nothing of real value to man, but I don\u2019t want man to miss out on things of real value just because it requires death to receive them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a dilemma.<\/p>\n

I have felt it most poignantly in the story of Christ. When I hear the story, I never want to Jesus to die in it. But I want the life that he says I can have only if he does, too. I\u2019m like he was in the Garden before he was drug off to be crucified, praying, \u201cGod, if there is any other way, let this cup be taken from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in the Bible\u2019s story, and it\u2019s in my daily story \u2013 someone or something\u2019s death is the price for me to have my life.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think Jesus would want me try to convince him not to do it for me, nor would he want me to fight against it happening (Peter tried both \u2013 see Mt 16:23 & Jn 18:11). I think what he wants is for me to have\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026awareness and gratitude.<\/p>\n

And then, everything that these two things bring, when they are with me, gives praise.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m aware and grateful for all the things in creation that die to give me life, I won\u2019t misuse creation. I\u2019ll utilize it\u2019s sacrifice\u2026but I\u2019ll also enjoy it, admire it, protect it, and care for it.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m aware and grateful for Jesus who died for me to give me life, I\u2019m not inclined to misuse him, take him for granted, or \u201clive however I want since I\u2019m forgiven\u201d.  I enjoy him, I admire him, I serve him, and I praise him. I live a life of love\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026when I\u2019m aware and grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn most cases, something has died to give us life.\u201d \u2013 Norman Grubb I\u2019m one hour out from being at the funeral of a great man. And I\u2019m a few seconds removed from having read the above statement. So forgive me as I sit in the space that these two events have suddenly and surprisingly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death-and-tragedy","category-the-best-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pO6nf-4K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}