Comedians can sometimes nail the truth in such a way that we not only find humor in it but also cannot deny its reality. Such was the case as I was reading a book that starts off commenting on our mortality. The author stated it in various creative ways. One was along the lines of “we are barreling our way to the boneyard”.
It triggered a memory of a cartoon my brother and I watched growing up called “Gulliver’s Travels”. There was an annoying predictability of each episode as the Lilliputians faced life threatening situations, worked together and overcame the odds to survive. However, there was one annoying character whom my kid brother regularly loved to imitate. He was called Glum. His main lines in every episode were “It won’t work. I just know it won’t. We’re all going to die”!
It’s amazing how as a culture we don’t want to face our mortality. Last night I sat down to watch what should have been the best Monday Night Football game of the year. Instead it was an incredibly sad and difficult moment. The commentators were speechless. They had no recollection of a player collapsing on the field like that before. The game was suspended and an hour later postponed.
Several things struck me about the night. One was the sheer disbelief about our own mortality. It turns out it was not the first time that happened in the NFL. Back in 1971 a player collapsed and convulsed on the field and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. He had a very advanced cardiac condition that no one knew about. Shockingly, that game went on after the player was taken to the hospital. But in 1971 they may not have known the status of the player when they resumed the game.
Yet last night was not the first time this has happened in sports in general in recent years. The data I am seeing paints a picture of a drastic rise worldwide in athletes collapsing while playing who in many cases ultimately die. I won’t speculate on causes, but the data shows that this typically happens about half dozen times a month somewhere in the world. In the past two years the numbers per month went up to over 100. Fortunately the numbers are slowly going back down.
Why is the media not willing to face the fact that we have a significant increase in mortality among athletes in recent years? There is very little reporting on this and the ESPN commentators dared not bring this up last night. My hunch is that we cannot face our mortality. The news media feeds on negative stories all the time – except tragic unexpected deaths of otherwise healthy people. We want instead to be in control of every aspect of who we are, including how long we will live.
A second thing that struck me last night, and this one far more hopeful. We were reminded of just how many people believe in prayer. Over the years we have seen the media move from “our prayers are with them” to “our thoughts and prayers…” to “our thoughts”. Last night we heard more about prayer than we ever do in prime time television. We saw an entire team on its knees praying for their teammate. That was a beautiful sight.
I went to bed not knowing anything about Damar Hamlin’s status and added my prayers to the millions of others. It was odd that after all I had seen, I opened a book I had been meaning to read and found the introduction of the book addressing our mortality. The timing could not have been more powerful. I read the opening chapter and closed my eyes to go to sleep. It was then that the old cartoon came to mind and I replayed the voice of my little brother imitating that annoying character.
Glum was wrong in every episode of that old cartoon and yet ultimately he was right. We all know people like him who are so pessimistic they ruin all hope and joy. It feels like our culture even is so negative that it leaves us little hope or joy. Yet the good news is that God has already provided for our place in eternity. We need not fear death, though we will mourn the loss of loved ones. God has made it possible for us to spend eternity with him if we will only repent and believe.
One other thought came to mind as I fell asleep. The archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America sent out a letter last month raising the question “will our children have a faith?”. In it he suggested that the denomination needs to ramp up its efforts to minister to children and youth. I was glad to see this since the ACNA is really not prioritizing younger generations nearly enough. It is our hope in the gospel that gives us the ability to face our mortality. The greatest need in this country and in much of the western world right now is for the entire church to pour its attention on younger generations who are so vulnerable and in need of good news. They will not have a faith in something they have never heard about.
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:14–15 ESV)
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