For many, reading these first two words will cause you to assume that I am making reference to the Apostle Paul’s admonition that Christ followers should “die daily” to self and our physical body’s tug at our morality. For sure, those of us who identify with Christ as Lord, should “consider ourselves dead” as Paul instructed. No argument here.
That’s not the death I’m referencing. The cycle of death we all should be familiar with applies to human bodies. ( I am currently living in one and trust me it’s not the same as it was several years ago…) Pets, flowers, grass, trees, aunts and uncles, grandparents and well, everyone has an expiration date.
This is not a complaint, it’s rather a report on an old man with 2 fatal conditions, Parkinson’s and Pulmonary Fibrosis. My container is almost 79 years old with high mileage and low maintenance, so…I am toward the end of my cycle of life in a human frame.
I am dying one day at a time and it’s not a bad thing. Dying is not a problem at all for me. It’s the collection of days between here and Wylie Funeral Home that frightens me a bit. I guess honesty demands that I admit I’m somewhat a coward. Pain is not my friend, shortness of breath is a caution light warning me that one day breathing will stop. The trip from today to that day is my only concern.
I do have something else to report. I have eternal life! Yea for me! Eternal life is a free gift given to all those who put their whole trust in Jesus Christ and his finished and final work for sinners like me. Eternal life is reserved for ONLY those who are in Christ by faith. There is not a hint of doubt that my exit from this tired body will be the entrance to the presence of the Lord.
To put all this in perspective, my dying is a gift. It’s confirmation that being with the Lord, free of every malady, every disappointment, every fear, every heart ache, and forever with the Lord is my future. So I can listen to my oxygen machine beep with deep seated joy in my soul knowing that the hope of the gospel is my comfort now and then.
To die is gain…
Royce
Grace Digest 
Royce, I wish your body were as strong as your faith. We are taught that His grace will sustain. My body is 86 at present. Looking at moving into an olde folkes home (they call it a “retirement community”).
I have been receiving e-newsletters from you occasionally for years, and hope they will continue. Thus, I may already have a subscription to your writings. If so, the sign-up that I completed may be duplicative. If there is more, please send it on.
PTL, and thanks, Brother!! win
Wayne I Newland
Falmouth, Maine