S5 E2 - A Time To Die

My grandmother a few days ago was put on hospice care, and I called to tell her goodbye just the other night. In Christ, we don't grieve as those who have no hope. She has fought the good fight, she has finished the race, she's kept the faith. 

Death is a part of life, and we will all face it. But for Christians, death is a release from this broken world and birth into something far better. To be at home with the Lord is our aim, and our goal. Let us encourage one another with these words. 

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths? Would you believe me? 

 Welcome back to season 5 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. And I’m excited to share a few moments together with you learning some important lessons from the simplest things. Let’s grow together! 

Today’s podcast perhaps will be one of the most personal that I have ever given before, but it is also one that I know each and every single listener will be able to relate to themselves. That is because today we’re dealing with death. Earlier this week my grandmother on my mom’s side, Eva Williams, was put on hospice care and given just a few more days to live. Over the last several years of her life, Grammy (as I call her) struggled increasingly with complications from Parkinson’s Disease. Within a years’ time, she had gone from living on her own and being self-sufficient to needing full time assisted care. The love and care she has been shown not only by the staff and my mother and father, but by the church family there, has been unbelievable. Kylie and I have wished numerous times we lived closer to her so we could have been a part a bigger part of helping to care for her, but we are so grateful for those who have stepped up and have loved her over these last few years. 

On Wednesday evening, I had the opportunity to call her to tell her goodbye. She has not woken up this whole week, but we are confident by her body language that she is still able to hear us. I spent the majority of the day meditating on exactly what it is that I wanted to say, knowing that it was likely the very last time I would have to speak to her on this side of heaven. So when I called my mom and had her put the phone on speaker next to Grammy, this is what I said. 

First, I wanted to thank her for her faith. Grammy was an incredible, godly woman alongside her husband, my Pop Pop, who was also a faithful Christian, Elder, & preacher who passed away well over ten years ago himself. Together, they helped to raise my mom to know the Lord and serve him. They were both instrumental in my father’s life as well, who was young in the faith when he met my mother.  I told her that just as Lois taught Eunice who ended up teaching Timothy (see 2 Timothy 1:5), so Grammy taught my mother who ended up teaching me. I could not be more grateful for the way that her faith has impacted my life. 

I wanted to thank her for the way that she loved my wife and my children. From the very start, she made sure that Kylie was grafted into our family – and loved her as her own granddaughter. And then when our children came into the picture, she was the best great grandmother that anyone could have asked for. Grammy and I often joked about how she was always a great grandmother, but now no one could argue against that she was really a great grandmother! I thanked her for how she has impacted even my small children, and reminded her how much each of them adore her and cherished the visits and video chats they would have together with her. 

I also wanted to make a promise to her. I remember right before my Pop Pop died, in one of the last conversations that I had with him he called me over and made me promise to do two things: to preach the gospel, and to take care of my mom. I reiterated, in sorts, that same promise to Grammy. I told her that the most important things in this life are faith and family, and that I would be devoted to them both in my life. I promised her that the same faith that lived in her, that she taught to my mother and was taught to me, would be passed down to my children too. In addition to this, I reminded her of my promise to care for my mother as she ages – just as my mother has cared for her. She need not worry about her daughter; I will see to it that my mom is just as cared for and loved as she had been. 

Finally, I wanted to tell her that it was okay to go. Grammy had fought hard for so long, and lived with so much pain over the last several years. There were many times that we thought she was going to pass, but she never gave up and fought hard to return back to some normalcy of health. Even as her health declined, Grammy worked hard to serve others to the best of her ability. I believe that was a big part of why she fought so hard to hang on – she felt like she had more to do. But now, as I told her, it’s time for her to go – and that is okay. Just as Solomon would pen in Ecclesiastes 3:2, “There is a time to give birth, and a time to die.” This was her time. She has fought the good fight. She has finished the race. She has kept the faith. As much as we will desperately miss her here, it is time for her to go home to be with her husband, to be with her oldest daughter Kim who was taken from us at such a young age, and to be with her Lord. 

With that, I told her I loved her and waited for my mom to hang up the phone before finally allowing my tears to pour out. We grieve, but because of our faith, we do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). I’ll see her again soon, when it will be my time to die. When that time will be, I have no idea, but I know that it will come just as it does for every person to have ever been born here on this earth. Each of us have a time to be born, and a time to die. 

The next night at dinner, I was alone with Dane and Ava and I used it as an opportunity to tell them that this time Grammy isn’t going to get better – that it was her time to go. Ava, in particular, took the news hard and had many tears. Trying to explain death to a six year old is difficult, and through her tears and her saying, “I’m just not ready for her to go yet,” I took it as an opportunity to try and teach and encourage her. So, I will share with you exactly what I shared with her.

First, as we’ve already discussed, death is simply a part of life. In Hebrews 9:27 we read the following: “And just as it is appointed for people to die once – and after this, judgment – so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” It is appointed for each of us to die. Death is as natural as birth, and both will happen to us all. As my Dad often suggests, this is one of our “appointments with God” that each of us must keep. We were never designed or intended to live forever on this earth. That is reserved for the life that is to come. 

Second, for those who are in Christ, death is preferable to life. How could I say something like that? Because in death we are finally removed from the brokenness of this world. While we live in the flesh, we face temptations to sin, we face sickness, we face sorrow, hate, war, betrayal, all kinds of things that are the result of a fallen world. For years, Grammy lived in pain and agony because her body and her mind was very sick. So, I reminded Ava that in death, Grammy will not feel those things anymore. She will finally have true peace and rest, and forevermore in the presence of God. We read in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.” 

Third, I reminded Ava that even though each of us are destined to die – if we are in Christ, we will certainly live again. In 1 Corinthians 15, we read the following extraordinary truths from the apostle Paul. Starting in vv. 50, “What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

For those who are in Christ, death is not defeat, but rather we share in the victory that Jesus has over death. Each of us one day will be raised from the dead to immortality and eternal life. Just as it was for the apostle Paul, for us to die is actually our gain. To depart from this world and be with the Lord is far, far better. And so, I would encourage you as listeners – if you are in Christ, death is not something to fear. While we grieve the loss of those we will miss who go on before us, we know that just as it is for them so it will be for us one day too. I can’t wait to go home to meet my Master and my Maker. Let us conclude with the word of Paul to the Thessalonian church in 1 Thess. 4:14-18.
 
 “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout,, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 5 episode 2 – and I’m so thankful that we had this time to grow together! A new episode is dropped every Friday, so be sure to tune in next week.  Also, if you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, give us a good rating or most importantly share it with someone else – it would help to reach others that I never could alone.  And more than anything, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.