- There Are Things Worse Than Death
Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person! recall the first time I heard that statement. I was in a quiet conversation with Harry M. Shuman, for many years president of The Christian and Missionary Alliance. He was a soft-spoken, yet forceful man of God, rich in the wisdom of God’s Word. We were talking of the serious issues of life and death. When he had something especially important to say, Dr. Shuman had an unusual way of lowering his voice and tilting his head just a bit. I can see him yet as he looked out from under his shaggy brows straight into my eyes. “Remember, Tozer, death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person!” For the Christian, death is a journey to the eternal world. It is a victory, a rest, a delight. I am sure my small amount of physical suffering in life has been mild compared with Paul’s. But I think I have some understanding of what he meant when he told the Philippians: “To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” (Philippians 1:21; Philippians 1:23). The more a Christian suffers in the body, the more he or she thinks about the triumph of going home to heaven. But we modern Christians seem to be a strange breed. We are so completely satisfied with the earthly things we have collected, and we so enjoy this age’s creature comforts, that we would rather stay here for a long, long time! Probably we do not tell God about that kind of desire when we pray. We know it would not be considered pious or spiritual if people knew we preferred our position here to the prospect of heaven. For years I have made a practice of writing many of my earnest prayers to God in a little book—a book now well worn. I still turn often to the petitions I recorded in that book. I remind God often of what my prayers have been.
One prayer in the book—and God knows it well by this time, for I pray it often—goes like this:
Oh God,
Let me die rather than to go on day by day living wrong. I do not want to become a careless, fleshly old man. I want to be right so that I can die right. Lord, I do not want my life to be extended if it would mean that I should cease to live right and fail in my mission to glorify You all of my days!