George Bernard Shaw once observed that the statistics about death are very impressive - one out of one people dies. So why don’t we give more thought to what happens after we die? A 10-minute cab ride on Christmas Eve reminded me of a question we all need to ask, but rarely do.
I jumped in the cab at Chatswood with a spring in my step - I’d successfully completed my Christmas shopping - shopping I’d foolishly left until the last minute. When I asked the driver where he was up to with his present-buying, he explained that as a Muslim, he and his family wouldn’t be celebrating Christmas.
Instead, they would be holding their own celebration a couple of months later in a traditional Persian celebration that would appear, on the outside at least, much the same as a traditional Australian Christmas, minus of course, any references to God himself dwelling among us as he is born as a baby.
Given the diverse collection of interesting conversations I’ve experienced with cab drivers, I thought I’d take the opportunity to ask the driver what being a Muslim meant to him. Was he a regular at his local mosque? No - in fact, he’d never stepped foot into one in his life.
Does being a Muslim require him to not drink? “Certainly not - it’s the 21st century afterall, what an out-dated expectation!” In fact, as the conversation continued, it became clear that my Iranian-born taxi driver shared the three-part faith common to many Australians - a belief in God, a conviction in the goodness of humanity, and the unfounded hope of a happy ending.
I know it’s a bit heavier than most taxi conversations, but I’m always fascinated to hear what other people think will happen to them when they die. And so I asked - “One second after you have breathed your last, where will you be?” I’ve asked this question many times before, of many different people (not always in cabs), and the response is almost always the same:
“I don’t know, but probably heaven”.
Of course, there’s the occasional atheist who is convinced that they have no eternal soul that will endure beyond their last breath, but from my random sampling, these are few and far between.
Generally speaking, Australians are pretty confident that ‘this’ isn’t all there is, and when life’s umpire raises his finger to the sky and sends them back to the dressing room, they will find themselves in a ‘better place’.
While this is certainly a nice thought, whenever anyone expresses this sentiment I usually respond with two follow-up questions.
Firstly, what evidence do you have that there is a ‘better place’?
And secondly, what confidence do you have that you will be going there?
My conversation partner is usually stumped at these two questions, responding vaguely along the lines of “there’s got to be more to life than this” and “I’m a pretty good person - I can’t see why I wouldn’t get in to heaven”. I’ve discovered that only a shallow scratch beneath the surface reveals that many Australians have neither evidence nor confidence to back their eternal aspirations.
What I find fascinating and, to be honest, fairly disturbing, is the massive disconnect between the gravity of the question - where will you be after you die - and the passing consideration most Australians give to it.
I recall walking around Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin with a colleague one lunchtime, several years ago. I asked him this same question - what do you think happens when you die? He was upfront in explaining that he was backing himself for heaven, but he couldn’t provide much more detail as to why.
I asked him if he was going to look into this question in more depth, to garner some certainty about his eternal destiny. His response - “I just don’t have the time at the moment”. He didn’t know when his last moment would actually be, but he was confident enough that it wouldn’t come anytime soon.
I didn’t get it. Such an important question, with far-reaching implications, but receiving such little interest.
To be sure, we’re daily faced with a barrage of questions of varying degrees of importance. To rent or own? Send the kids to a public or private school? Flat white or latte? To get behind, or completely disown the Australian cricket team? However, it seems that many Australians would spend more time researching the best mobile phone provider than they would consider where they will be, one second after they die.
Of course, if our final destination is completely independent of any choices we make pre-death, there’s no point giving even a moments consideration to this question.
But what if the decisions we make now, in this life, impact where we find ourselves in the ever-after? Surely you’d want to be sure - one way or the other? Surely if bad news awaited, and there was an escape plan, you’d want to find out while you still could?
If life is like driving down a straight road, most people would consider death to be a sharp right-hand turn at the end of the road. Everyone goes around the corner eventually - but what is around that corner? Is it good news or bad news?
Sure, you can use your imagination and hope that there’s a Krispy Kreme store selling delicious jam-filled, dentist-delighting donuts, but that store won’t be there just because you want it to be. It’s either there, or it’s not. And so surely, before you come around the corner, you want to be sure of what will be there - so you can prepare yourself appropriately.
If it’s a donut store, you want to prepare yourself by not having lunch. If it’s a flooded roadway, you want to start slowing down. If it’s a cliff, you want to slam on the brakes. So the next question is - is it possible to know what is around that corner before we get there?
As a Christian, I believe it is possible. The Bible is both the authority and road-sign that I place my hope and confidence in. In the Bible we read that all people who have ever lived will experience a day of judgement. For some people, the result of this judgement will be to continue to experience relationship with God in heaven, for eternity.
At Christmas we remember how this was made possible - Jesus came into the world to provide forgiveness for our sins, to restore our broken relationship with God, and to enable all who trust in him to enjoy eternal life.
However, the Bible is also very clear in explaining that there is an alternative - a place called hell - where all who desire to continue to live separate to God and his rule will be permitted to do just that. Their destiny will be a place where God, the source of all goodness, will be absent. There are two alternatives, the Bible explains, and everyone makes the choice.
C.S. Lewis, the author of the Narnia series, put it this way:
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”
The Christian message isn’t a new message, and I can anticipate many objections to what I believe and why. My point isn’t to convince you to believe what I believe, nor to defend the Christian gospel in a couple of paragraphs.
No, my purpose is to urge you to work out what you do believe, and to make sure you’ve got some evidence and ultimately some confidence, to back up whatever that might be. Don’t go round that last corner blind-folded. The consequences are simply too great to just cross your fingers and hope for the best.
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