A Lesson from Lazarus and the Rich Man

People die everyday - that's for sure...but have you noticed that lately some of the biggest celebrities are dying very traumatic and public deaths? The impact of stress and trouble even on the wealthiest and most envied personalities is resulting in suicide, early death, and sudden death. It reminds me of how fragile life is and how worry can't change things one way or the other. It reminds me that much of what we spend so much of our emotional energy fretting over will work itself out if we learn to simply let go. But there is another lesson to be learned. And that is the fact that once this life is over, we still have life in eternity to live. What we do in this one has a tremendous impact on our next life. The way I treat my fellow man, my life style, the way I spend my private time (my character), even the way I spend my money, will inevitably come back either to haunt me or justify me in my next life. Many have focused on the fact that the biblical man named Lazarus was a poor man who lived in the alley of the rich man's house, and that when he died, he went to the bosom of Abraham while the rich man went to hell. Well, the parable of the story isn't that the rich go to hell and the poor go to heaven...the parable is that when this life is over, it is not over. The point is that everyday it is important to live one's life knowing that in the life to come we must give an accounting of how we lived this one. That means taking the time to treat people right, and doing what's right, and being kind to other human beings. All of us are going to die one day and death is a great gulf fixed so that I will never be able to come back and redo what I shoulda, coulda, woulda. Now is the time to live life with a gentle spirit toward all..and to learn to simply let go of what I cannot change.