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Had a recent bout with the ultimate fear-faith factor.

“How long do I have?”

“Lord, will I see you soon?”

“No, still need to enjoy all my grandchildren, even those soon to come!”

“Streets of gold at last!”

“Whose hand will my hubby grasp in his old age?”

“No more pain, no more crying!”

“More books to write, more souls to win, not yet!”

“No more white hair! Forever young!”

“Lord, if this is it, let there be no more complications. Just let me walk into the light.”

I’m sure you could identify with this tug-of-war between leaving and staying. For crying out loud, I’m turning 59 before month’s end. Some of my younger friends have gone ahead. Who’s to say the next buzz isn't for me?

And what would you have thought if your doctor orders a colonoscopy because you reported a series of bloody poo days? (Could one Briton’s similar incident a long time ago have prompted the by-now classic expression, “that bloody loo?”)

Anyway, before I digress, thank God the colonoscopy confirmed that whatever I hemmed and hawed about for four days was plain and simple hemorrhoid.

But just for the sake of argument, what IF?

How can I even bargain with God? He said He held my life in His hand. My life is not my own. He created me. He knows exactly the number of days I have on planet earth.

Couldn’t our Maker who appoints the seasons and times of our lives do with us like the turning of leaves from green to orange to yellow to brown, then falling off their branches and finally finding their resting place in an obscure patch of land?

But I’m not a leaf. I am His beloved. We are His beloved!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that those who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So how can I even fear death? As far as I am concerned, death has lost its sting! Like Paul, I believe that to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. I will not be a wandering ghost instilling fear in the hearts of my loved ones. Hey, heaven is heaven! I won't be staying here a second longer.

That’s why when the trumpet or the buzzer or the whistle sounds, I’m all ears. Neither am I packing anything. I have everything I need. Jesus promised salvation to all those who believe. My good works? He’ll surely reward me for those but those will not be the reason I’m entering heaven. Jesus is! Check out His conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, the bible.

Believe in Jesus. That’s your ticket to foreverland! And this is no fantasy either. Jesus promised He would go and prepare a place for us.

Proud, directionless, I-me-myself-self-centered Yay one night yielded her heart to Jesus. Little by little she grew in her faith; learned to distinguish her priorities; realized that life is not about position or power or possession, but knowing and obeying Jesus, the author and perfecter of one’s faith.

You could have that too, and no longer be afraid of death or anything. He has you covered!