Amen!

Everyone (by now) probably knows that I want a jazz funeral when I die, and I have even given other instructions.  Given the uncertainty of this life, it is never too early to start contemplating whether you are ready for death.  I came across this quote spoken by D. James Kennedy,  who died earlier this week.  I love what he said anticipating his own death (although I don't know when he said this), and it is the way that we should feel because of our hope in Christ:

"Now, I know that someday I am going to come to what some people will say is the end of this life.  They will probably put me in a box and roll me right down here in front of the church, and some people will gather around, and a few people will cry.  But I have told them not to do that because I don't want them to cry.  I want them to begin the service with the Doxology and end with the Hallelujah chorus, because I am not going to be there, and I am not going to be dead.  I will be more alive than I have ever been in my life, and I will be looking down upon you poor people who are still in the land of dying and have not yet joined me in the land of the living.  And I will be alive forevermore, in greater health and vitality and joy than ever, ever, I or anyone has known before."