God doesn’t want us to “cloister” in a social bubble and mix only with each other:  Christians are charged to be witnesses (Acts 1:8) and love neighbor and even enemy (Matt. 5:44; 22:39), but we can’t do these things if we isolate ourselves from the world.

And yet, we are called to live in community with fellow believers in such a way that we care and support and serve one another in deep, beautiful ways (John 13:35).  Healthy church life means having rich relationships with fellow disciples of Jesus.

One of the fruits of a proper immersion in the church fellowship is bolstering a biblical view of death.  Drawing on Scripture, we internalize and depend on the fact that death is defeated and a glorious eternal life awaits us (Rom. 8:38-39; 1 Cor. 54-57).  This facet of a Bible-based frame of mind is foundational for God’s people, and it gives us ballast in the tossing seas of today.

I was reminded of this when I read “What to Read to Come to Terms with Death,” with book recommendations (The Atlantic, 2-21-2023).  The author, Eleanor Cummins, does not write from a religious perspective, and the books reviewed do not interact with the idea of God’s existence.  Her emphasis is that seven featured books “can help us accept our limitations and live full lives.”

Accepting death, acknowledging our frailty, embracing the truth of our mortality … this is how to cope with being human.  Some authors veer toward desolation, others favor comforting fictions.  But the recommended books are most helpful when honestly facing the facts:  “… accepting your fate is the closest a person can ever come to triumph in the unwinnable war against death.”

Brother or sister in Jesus, that is the cloud over the non-believer’s life; that is the gloom that gnaws at so many of our neighbors.  So we have good reason to:  1) thank God for free grace and eternal hope; and 2) pray for and reach out to lost souls on our path!