{"id":3821,"date":"2024-07-12T09:50:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T13:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3821"},"modified":"2024-07-12T09:50:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T13:50:57","slug":"from-death-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/12\/from-death-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"From Death to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

A number of years ago a member of my church was felled by a heart attack.

Lying comatose for days in the hospital ICU, he hovered between life and death. There was no certainty of recovery.

But he did recover. He regained his strength, was restored to his family, and came back to church. That\u2019s when he asked me to visit him one evening so he could tell me his story.

The first thing I noticed is that he was different somehow \u2013 quietly confident might be an apt description. He said, \u201cI know you may not believe this, but I had a conversation with Jesus. We sat down and talked with each other in the next world, the same way you and I are talking right now. He said my life wasn\u2019t over \u2013 that I needed to return to this world and live out my reason for being here.\u201d

Needless to say, it was a conversation I will long remember.

What my friend was describing was an NDE \u2013 a near-death experience. At least 15 million Americans have reported something similar. I know of one pastor who has heard 50 such stories from members of his congregation.

NDEs are fascinating because they seem to address one of humanity\u2019s most enduring questions: Is there any substantive evidence that people survive death \u2013 that our consciousness and identity remain intact even after our brains and hearts stop working? 

While specific details vary, most of us are acquainted with what might be called the prototypical near-death experience.

During a medical crisis, organs begin to shut down. The patient sees a bright light or walks toward a tunnel of light. Deceased friends and loved ones may appear, perhaps even angels or Jesus. There is often a sensation of feeling totally known and totally loved.

While such experiences could be nothing more than illusions or hallucinations, Boston University professor Peter Kreeft believes there are good reasons to conclude NDEs might be snapshots of reality.

First, they don\u2019t vary very much from person to person \u2013 even people with dramatically different personalities. They also defy what we might call common expectations. People who have attended Sunday School all their lives may glibly assume heaven will feature streets of gold, harps, and haloes. Few NDEs, however, report such details.

Sometimes the \u201cdeceased\u201d person brings back information that is genuinely hard to explain, such as snippets of dialogue from medical personnel during resuscitation efforts, descriptions of clothing worn by guests in the waiting room, and even encounters with long-dead family members whom the patient never knew existed. It is especially striking when such details are reported by young children.

Of most significance, perhaps, is the long-term impact of an NDE.

Many of those who have had a near-death experience are never quite the same. That proved to be true of my friend at church. He lost his fear of death \u2013 a gift that many of us would welcome. He returned to his family and his job with a renewed sense of purpose, meaning, and direction.

Not every NDE is a pleasant experience. Some are seriously jarring, and feel more like wake-up calls than reassurances. But one common discovery seems to emerge: Unconditional love matters. Life is too short to go forward without wisdom, compassion, and grace.

It\u2019s noteworthy that since such experiences continue to happen to a great many people, even skeptics and agnostics have found NDEs to be worth exploring.

Kreeft notes that there\u2019s always room for doubt, of course.

Some scientists suggest that an NDE is nothing more than what a person \u201cexperiences\u201d while the brain is shutting down. A few have even postulated that the iconic tunnel of light is our subconscious memory of coming into the world at the time of birth.

It\u2019s far harder to explain the insights and information that some patients receive, not to mention the transforming impact on their personal values.   

Hospice care is one of the great miracles of modern medicine. Under the influence of powerful medications, we and our loved ones can come to the end of life relatively pain-free.

It\u2019s also true, however, that families today are more likely to miss what previous generations routinely experienced \u2013 the words of the dying as they slip away from this world and step into the next. Such final expressions \u2013 \u201cOh, look!\u201d or \u201cDad, what are you doing here?\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s the most beautiful thing I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d \u2013 have been powerful assurances to those left behind, reminders that life isn\u2019t over when it\u2019s over.

Those who have had a near-death experience, by definition, haven\u2019t died in a final and full sense.

If only we knew someone who wasn\u2019t just near <\/em>death, but had certifiably come to the end of their life, then returned to this world to lead us and love us, no matter what our circumstances, with the very power of heaven.

There really is such a person.

His name is Jesus.<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here A number of years ago a member of my church was felled by a heart attack. Lying comatose for days in the hospital ICU, he hovered between life and death. There was no certainty of recovery. But he did recover. He regained his strength, was restored to his family, and came… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[769,768,141],"class_list":["post-3821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afterlife","tag-dearth","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3821"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3824,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821\/revisions\/3824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}