Immortality
In a rasped voice, he screamed from the sidewalk,” I am immortal; I will live forever….. and so shall all of you.” He seemed to be addressing no one ….or everyone. The pedestrians on the sidewalks swerved to avoid the seemingly half crazed man, looking at his way only to avoid walking into him. They wanted nothing to do with this annoying person or his screams about immortality. “What a nutcase,” they thought to themselves, with no little irritation, as they proceeded to their destinations. One man shouted back at him, “Immortal is it! You won’t be saying that as you take your last breath.” He chuckled to himself believing that he had gotten the last word as he hurried to his office. Yet had he?
On entering into his office, the man thought about the minor encounter with the sidewalk preacher. At first he let a smile of satisfaction cross his lips, thinking he had dispensed with the irritating person. Yet the man’s screeching about immortality did start him to consider,” Was man destined for more than the existence of this life? Was an eternal life possible?” Though not a religious man, he wondered if there could be an eternal life and what it would be like. The thought of a heaven or a paradise intrigued him, but he would not permit himself to contemplate the possibility of the existence of a hell. As soon as he allowed himself to ruminate about an eternal life, he recalled his grandmother’s encouragement to him about a life everlasting. She frequently quoted from St. John’s epistle, notably his famous entreaty about a life forever. “The world and its allurements will pass away, but the man who has done the will of God shall live forever.” The remembrance of his grandmother and her devotion to God began to shake him. He had lived his life based on his will and desires. Had he lived his life on the wrong premise?
Assuming that his grandmother was correct, that God exists and one can know God’s will, then it would be sensible to follow God’s will, as opposed to his own will. He recalled why he had decided to follow his own desires and will; simply, it was so much easier to yield to his desires than to follow the will of God. Heavenly paradise requires a subordination of his own will to that of God. Oh how much easier it was to handle and accept his own will! Immortality requires difficult choices that he did not want to make. Then suddenly it hit him; immortality is not his choice to accept or reject! Assuming that immortality is real, then he will experience it after his death, either in heaven or in hell. He does not possess the choice of whether to accept immortality or not; his only choice is between doing God’s will or his own, between heaven or hell.
As he contemplated his choices, shaken and terribly uncomfortable, the man knew the choice he had to make. But will he choose God?