My mother passed away about two months ago, I am reading a book about angels, demons, and the afterlife, and my aunt just gave me some instructions for her funeral. I have the afterlife on my mind more than most people would.
Several years ago, a met a Jewish man and we discussed religion. He told me for him the afterlife wasn’t important, life was important. At the time, I didn’t really understand what he meant by it, but I liked the idea. Now that I am older, I understand what he was trying to convey to me. I even tried to look up the Jewish doctrine on the afterlife before writing this post. It turns out that Jewish people do believe in the afterlife, but unlike Christians or Muslims, they don’t place as much emphasis on it. My take is that the afterlife is for later, what’s important is the here and now.
Today, as I was reading about the Old Testament and the Jewish religion, I realized something that I had never thought about in relation to the afterlife. Jesus was a Jew. I realize that there are many references to Heaven and Hell in the New Testament, but those could just be additions or translations. When I consider everything, Jesus’ idea of the afterlife must have been closer to what a Jewish person believes that what a Christian person believes. And if that is true, then there’s too much emphasis on reward and punishment at the end of our lives.
My life shouldn’t be a scorecard of actions that add up to whether or not a get into heaven or get sent to hell. And I can’t believe that the New Testament is about that either. I need to believe that my life is about finding a connection to God. No matter what happens after I die, if I find some way to commune with God to feel the love of the entity that created me and to act on that love in my lifetime, then maybe there’s a spirit of love inside of me that connects to the rest of the universe and it goes on forever and becomes a part of all the love that was, is and ever will be. I don’t know and I don’t think I need to know. I believe that all I need to do is have faith that what I feel in my heart is that connection to God and if I keep holding on to it and acting upon it and letting it guide me, then my life will matter and whatever happens at the end, He will take care of me and guide me then, too. In other words, I have to believe that the end doesn’t justify the means and what really matters isn’t what happens at the end, but how I connect with God now and every day of my life.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
