Mortality

Not often do I think about my own mortality, but this morning I awoke to a stinging sore throat. Not exactly a death sentence, but when I thought about praying away the sore throat, I wondered, "Does God even care about something as small as my sore throat? I mean, people are dying. Wait a minute! What if I've got avian flu? What if I'm dying? What if I don't awake tomorrow?" That was my thought progression, and suddenly I began to doubt my immortality. It's such an unnatural thought - to think of dying. I think it's an unnatural thought because we weren't designed to die. We were designed to be immortal.

Yes, I actually believe that I am immortal - in the sense that this body is going to stop working at some point, but my soul, me, the real me, is indestructible and will live on. I might be indestructible in the presence of God or away from His presence, but I will live on. Even if I get avian flu, I'm not going to cease being. I will simply cease being in this body. I will certainly be somewhere. I think it is the idea of annihilation that we sometimes confuse with physical death. Annihilation is unnatural and unreal. We don't see it in the physical world, and Scripturally you can't make a good case for it in the spiritual world. We continue. We are immortal. The question is where we will spend our time once these bodies cease to hold our souls - immortalized in God's presence or away from Him?