Word for the Week
Short reflections on Bible passages, with a frontline focus...
Read
We are currently experiencing technical issues with some of our video content. If you are unable to access a video, please email [email protected] for help.
It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:2
A friend just told me about a t-shirt he wished he had bought for me. It said: ‘If I die, someone stop my Strava.’
The fact that this friend saw the shirt and thought of yours truly says plenty about me (and my need to track my performance on life’s literal and metaphorical treadmills). You may find that more worrying than amusing.
To me, though, the shirt reveals more about the culture in which it is for sale than it does about the one who wears it. And it’s all to do with the first three words. Did you catch them?
If I die…
It’s as if there is an unspoken agreement amongst us to keep our eyes forward and our feet in motion on the treadmill. Deep down, we know we’re not going to outrun death in the end. But we tend to prefer the feeling that we’re running.
I write as someone who, at the ripe old age of 35, has attended the funerals of both closest friends and immediate family. Some were lost suddenly, others gradually. It didn’t make a difference: death surprised me. Every time.
I suspect The Teacher might actually want to buy the Strava t-shirt, if he could change the first word to When. It might be a way of provoking us to consider the certainty and mystery of death, and the brutal question marks it appoints over every life.
The Teacher considers these questions for us. Is everything I am living for totally pointless (3:19)? Who will remember me anyway (2:16)? Might death in some way be a mercy from our suffering (4:2)? And what, or who, comes after it (9:1)?
For those of us who call ourselves Christians, we are ready to go first in asking – and answering – those kinds of questions. Not only because the one we follow wept when death claimed his friend. But because the death of the one we follow is the reason we follow him.
The Teacher wants us to sit with him in the pain and confusion of death. If we can do that, we might discover a new kind of empathy for the person on the treadmill next to us. And we might run next to them for long enough to earn the right to ask – and answer – some of death’s questions.
You don’t even need a t-shirt.
___
Tim Yearsley
Head of Innovation, LICC
Where do you see people running on treadmills on your frontline? Join the conversation in the comments below.
Short reflections on Bible passages, with a frontline focus...
Read
I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden ...
Read
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a ...
Read
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
__stripe_mid | 1 year | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. |
__stripe_sid | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. |
_GRECAPTCHA | 5 months 27 days | This cookie is set by Google. In addition to certain standard Google cookies, reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement | 1 year | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
resource_download_valid | 30 days | This cookie is used to track whether or not you are able to download a resource. |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
woocommerce_cart_hash | woocommerce_cart_hash | This cookie is used to store your basket information and is required to buy items from our website. |
woocommerce_items_in_cart | session | This cookie is used to store your basket information and is required to buy items from our website. |
wp_woocommerce_session | session | This cookie is used to store your basket information and is required to buy items from our website. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_ga | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
_gcl_au | 3 months | This cookie is used by Google Analytics to understand user interaction with the website. |
_gid | 1 day | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form. |
vuid | 2 years | This domain of this cookie is owned by Vimeo. This cookie is used by vimeo to collect tracking information. It sets a unique ID to embed videos to the website. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
IDE | 1 year 24 days | Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile. |
NID | 6 months | This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users. |
test_cookie | 15 minutes | This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | 5 months 27 days | This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website. |
YSC | session | This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. |
Maybe another slogan could be
When I die, please tell Alexa