Hello, world. I welcome you to Life Rocks. You think about it. Let's talk about it.

The dark side--have you heard that phrase? The dark side refers to a purely natural, regular phenomenon, the part of the earth which is not exposed to the sun. But the dark side has taken a metaphorical power, as it were, because now we have the dark side of leadership, the dark side of comedy, even. But there is one reality which does not need to have a dark side, because it is intrinsically dark. We call it death.

I hate death. That's what I texted to my dear friend, whose niece just suddenly died at 38 years of age in her sleep, leaving four kids and her husband. I hate death. How can we have peace in death?

Or, more recently, my wife and I went to the funeral of a 35-year-old. Her father put his head on my shoulder and wept. And I said, "It seems like the sequence is off. The parent should die first."

And she had died of cancer. And her father said, "I have prayed so often that I could die ahead of her." How can we have peace in death? And then I went to a funeral just in the last few days of a lady who had multiple sclerosis for 24 years. She was dying all the time. And her family said, "We had prepared for this day for 20 years. And yet, when it finally happened, we found ourselves unprepared." How can we find peace in death, since all of us are dying anyway?

But I also went last Saturday to the funeral of an 86-year-old lady, a beautiful woman who died in peace. My father, who died about six months ago, just 17 days short of 95, died in peace. What was the difference? And what could be the difference?

Whether young or old, we are going to die. Death is the huge equalizer, isn't it? There was a recent discussion of a wrong headline in the newspaper, which said mortality levels of smokers and nonsmokers were equal. They have always been equal.

We all know that nonsmokers have longer life expectancy. But they don't have longer, better mortality levels. Mortality levels is always the same. Smoker or non-smoker, we will meet death.

Yeah, we can try to make jokes about death to remove the edge of the darkness of death. But it's very difficult. And, when I go to the doctor and ask him about a complaint that I might have, he will say, "Oh, that is normal for your age." And, one day, death is going to be normal for my age. If you go to a cemetery or read the obituary, you will find ages of all sorts of those who have died.

How can we find peace in death? I have looked around. There is only one proven record of somebody who beat the problem of death and gives you the option of having peace in the middle of death.

I'm talking about your death, not somebody else's death. There is grief and loss. There is another video on how to find peace in the middle of grief and loss. I'm talking about your own ending, death. How can you have peace?

Well, the One who won the victory over death, who said He will go to the dark side, but on the third day will rise again, was God Himself, who came down to give us relief, not to lighten the sadness or sorrow of death, but to brighten the possibility of the afterlife being a guarantee for you and me so that we can face death in peace. Some time ago, a woman was dying. And an acquaintance of mine said to his mother, who was dying, "We will see you in a minute or two, in a few seconds, Mother," for she was crying.

He asked his mother, "Are you crying because you are afraid to die?" She said, "No. I'm crying because I'm going to leave you. And

I'm sad because you're going to feel sad that I am gone." And this young man told his mother, "Mother, we will see you in a minute or two"--emphasizes, "maybe just in a few seconds!"

What did he mean by that? Well, a day in eternity is like 1,000 years in this life because the afterlife has no chronometry, no chronology. Time is irrelevant. And so, from his mother's perspective, who lived and died in peace, invades our souls... And this young man said, "I, too, will live and die in peace. It's going to just be a few seconds, a few minutes." The commonality both shared is they both knew the one who defeated the final enemy, death, the Lord Jesus... who says to you, "Take my victory as yours. I can save you from the consequences of your decisions with this final death forever and ever, and give you peace in the middle of death that all of us face right now, regardless of when it happens."

You think about it. Let's talk about it.