The Dividing Line

Photo by Thomas Quaritsch on Unsplash

You won’t have thought of this very often, if at all.

The dividing line exists at the moment of death. One moment we exist in a physical sense on this side of the line. The next moment, another reality commences. This reality of life, when it comes to an end, is not the end.

This is something that can happen in the very next moment. And, yet, none of us think about it often enough or consider it seriously enough. We all live assuming it will never really happen. We may think of it fleetingly at a funeral or when we interact with someone who has incurred loss, but we don’t think about it enough — and we can’t think about it too much. This is a paradox. It’s because we’re set here, in a life that demands we live, on the one hand. And, yet, on the other hand, what comes next moment or eight decades away is coming as surely as anything comes.

Being set in this life is a danger we need to be aware of. We are more prepared to argue the toss on ‘significant’ issues in this life — many of which will have no bearing on the life that’s coming. We are more prepared to party and act the fool than to consider the consequences of our acts on the other side.

What’s coming is more inevitable than anything in this very physical life this side of the dividing line. To even contemplate such a thought ought to compel us to fear. Not a sort of fear that scares us in a worldly or earthly sense. A fear that compels us to think about how we live this life right here.

The dividing line is as obvious as death. And death is inevitable.

You will be at your funeral one day. You will be the only one there who is no longer alive. Everyone else you care about will be there. And there is nothing you can do to avoid this fact. None of us can.

These thoughts are the ultimate in vulnerability.

But these thoughts can motivate us to live our lives a certain way.

How will consideration of these thoughts challenge and change the way you live?

Death causes us to reassess our lives, realign our priorities, and recommit to live.

If only we would live more often from these reassessments, realignments and recommitments.