25 Comments
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Tony DiFabbio's avatar

Beautifully written Grace! So uplifting!

GBM's avatar

I sincerely hope that Ben Sasse will continue to share his experiences and wisdom with us. We all face death but only a few get a clear prognosis and time chart that provides a forum for such communication. May God bless his family and him richly by providing the peace that passes all understanding.

Mark Armstrong's avatar

"When cynicism becomes a cultural default, the shared story that once bound the West together begins to unravel...

"... our culture desperately needs (hope)—a hope grounded in the certainty that the story does not end in the grave...

"If the West is to renew itself, it must once again believe that death is not the final word."

What a wonderful, wise, and inspiring post, and just what I needed to read today. Thanks for sharing and for your good influence. 👍🙏

Dr Phillip Chalmers's avatar

I acknowledge that Messiah came 2 thousand years ago.

It did not bring instant transformation of the entire human race in actuality, it brought the next phase of the work of God cleansing and purifying and repairing the terrible damage done by the disobedience of our first parent couple.

Christians are yeast, the leaven in the lump of dough which is here to make the risen loaf ready for the last phase.

We do not have the last page to look at first, we have the duty and obligation and privilege of living according to the prompting and guidance of the Holy Spirit to participate in this phase of humankind and the created material order being brought to the finish according to the will of the creator of all things: time and space, matter and energy and spirit both pure and incarnate.

To the author: Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, it has never entered into the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for those who love him.

TD Craig's avatar

Amen, amen and amen!! "And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." Knowing the end (beginning) makes all the difference in the world. I recall the principle of Steven Covey when he said: "Begin with the end in mind." Without a sense of destination, what on earth is the journey for?! It has always seemed clear to me that if you do not actually know where you are headed, then you really ought to focus your efforts, ie ALL your efforts, on finding out. Otherwise, you may find that you have wasted a great many years, and days and hours, on pointless endeavour. In my opinion, NOTHING could be more advantageous than figuring out what you're here for; what it's really all about. I'm also firmly convinced that it's a question we can all answer if we genuinely try.

Joan Wayman's avatar

Sorry to hear about Ben. Never underestimate the power of God. And,

May you stay alive long

Enough to have some genius figure out how

To find the cure.

I was given 62 months to live- I looked at my husband and said, “if I die and you marry a bimbo, I WILL haunt you.” My kids were 11 and 12. The genetic cancer in my

Family is as wide as a turbulent Mississippi River making its way fro Mn to the bayou of New Orleans. This test is when you really know that you are but an ant in the big scheme

Of life.

Are you lucky enough to be entirely immune or ignorant to your contribution to it? Or

Are you so aware that it’s about you?

Let

Me tell you. It’s not about you.

May we all be aware that our steadfastness to goodness and. Hard decisions and life and love and forgiveness are so much more

Important to our children’s future and their children’s future.

Our wealth, our importance, is nothing without our awareness that it’s now about me or you or us. It’s about them.

That is what Washington Franklin Hamilton Jefferson and all those who chose the nation over themselves.

And how they could benefit. Yes, which may have meant the temporary pain of imperfection.

No one is perfect.

May we value the contribution of greatness over finding fault.

We are all human.

May we value the ideal and always strive for it.

God bless the ingenuity of the human spirit.

Steve's avatar

M'am, You are God's gift to the benighted West. God bless you and may your husband be the respite you deserve during your struggle to help us save our civilization

Kathy Ross's avatar

What an uplifting message!!! Thank you!!!

Don Spak's avatar

Well said. We should all listen.

Tom Patrick's avatar

We are immortal creatures who know we are going to die. We remember when it was not so.

Abigail Joy Starke's avatar

Praying for his family

MJSchilder60's avatar

Just what I needed to hear today! Thank you Grace Salvatore. We must all imagine the best is yet to come ... We are all co-creators!

Lorna Salzman's avatar

Not all of us have a spiritual crisis. Not all of us need vaguely religious entreaties. Many of us have strength derived not from fake beliefs in fake gods but in reason and faith in human

institutions and relationships which are sufficient. We prefer not to be misled by the quite

incredible and irrational beliefs of others. We possess minds that are capable of determining lies from truth. My condolences that you have not yet taken advantage of nature's gifts to humans, the ability to detect what is real and what is invented.

GBM's avatar

To an intimate personal relationship with Almighty God!

MJSchilder60's avatar

The best of humanity is yet to come! We must believe in the Power of LOVE! It always wins over EVIL. It's merely a matter of when.

Dr Phillip Chalmers's avatar

Life in a body dead by crucifixion and proven by a spear into the heart the day before yesterday is not vague nor is it religious.

Explain it away or think again.

For contemporary evidence, go to the Lourdes repository of documented miracle cures. They do not record the mental, emotional or spiritual transformations.

They only deal with incurable physical diseases and physical abnormalities, (x-rays, scans, biopsies, pathology results ... before and after) so no-one is justified in attributing anything there recorded as subjective or illusory.

Steve's avatar

How sad you are.

Lorna Salzman's avatar

Abyss? What abyss? I face my life, not false dogmas. And get comfort from my family and friends, from music and art and books, and the wonders of the natural world that has evolved over eons without the help or false saviors of religion.My intimate relationships are with real people and real ideas and a real world. I am sorry you have never experienced these things. But there is still time.

TD Craig's avatar

You believe that all these good things you enjoy developed from nothing as a result of entirely random processes acting on matter and energy which just happened to exist? I admire your faith.

Steve's avatar

What did I say that included the word "abyss"? Ignorance ca be cured by education. Stupidity cannot be cured by anything. Your "intimate" relationships will cease when you cease to exist. Must be comforting for you to know that. BTW: how do you know what I have experienced? You are a typical stupid atheist/leftists who thinks your experiences are the only valid ones.

Dr Phillip Chalmers's avatar

The origin of life and the variety of life is beyond explanation. Darwin himself was full of legitimate doubt. Subsequent scientific work has made it certain that there is no possible natural explanation.

Your faith is in particles and probabilities being all there is a newly minted superstition - what started the Big Bang?

Jonas Zoller's avatar

Woo hoo!!

On my feet and cheering. Well done!

Sharon ShihTzu's avatar

The wheat is being separated from the chaff. It's one of the few things that keeps me grounded through all this craziness.

And death, yes, sweet death. Facing it opens one's eyes to the Truth.

There's a reason us humans (well at least the vast majority) don't know what awaits us when we die. What follows is my hypothesis;

What follows death is so completely, utterly and absolutely beautiful, we'd all want to (and just might) bail out of this life so we could get to the next.