YOU SHALL NOT DIE!

’Pmark

 ---I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

Very close to our apartment in Sapele is a church whose generator noise and fume constitute a menace to our comfort. This is spiced with the recurrent loud shouts of “you shall not die in Jesus name!” every Monday and Friday, during their prayer sessions. This prayer received the loudest affirmation and cries of “Amen” whenever it is been echoed in the church. Subconsciously I began to initiate my thoughts towards their “doctrine of human immortality”. I thought to myself: if this were true, if indeed there is a possibility that we would not die physically. For us to live forever. Paradoxically, two weeks before my resumption to school, a member of the congregation died of cardiac arrest. I sarcastically added that his death ensued from the rigors that came with the noisy shouts in the church.

Most pertinently, I came to a realization that a core, undisputed fact that can never be altered is the reality of death. No matter the mechanism we employ, either self-delusion or denial, it remains a truism. Death is inevitable! Whatever way we look at it, we are increasingly close to it, with each day that passes by.

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Lagos beach. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than newton, fighters greater than Mohamed Ali, athletes greater than Bolt, wrestlers greater than D Undertaker and writers greater than Chinua Achebe. We know this because the set of DNA so massively exceeds the set of the actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness that are here.

We are destined to close our eyes someday and never open it to this side of life. We fret over the thought of this especially when we are privileged to have the best things life can offer. We must know that we are “option-less” over this datum; so the faster we accept it, the better it helps us cognize life better.

A consciousness of how slim our lives are, helps us in building our lives on the right path. It’s not in how long we live, but it’s how much our lives have impacted on the lives of others.  We live not just for ourselves, but for the benefit of the whole, the world around us. It is dismaying how people live their lives thinking everything in life is for their grasp. They choose to trample on other’s rights. They may get away with their acts of inhumanity but can never get away with death. There are those too, who have appreciated the dying phenomenon. These persons apprehend that someday they will die. The real deal is not in dying or when shall death come. The Kpim of the death phenomenon is: what would you be remembered for? To answer this question right, we must realize that we must begin to act now about what and how we wish to be remembered when we are gone.

What will you be remembered for? This question goes to every one of us. Imagine you are dead now and you close your eyes and open it at the other side of life to watch your friends, acquaintances and family. What do you think they will be saying about you?  What about your neighborhood and beyond? Who will be able to string his life to the benefit you have offered before now?

Obviously, no one wants to talk about death. But, we cannot help but tend to think about it when we are in serious danger and pray we don’t get caught up in its wings. The fear of dying is so horrid that it could leave a gory tale behind. More so, it steals in unnoticed and storms out a victor. Its victory over our human existence is short-lived only if we do know the real essence of our living. We live to bless, to add value, to make impact, to uplift and promote God’s kind of life on earth. What will count after we are gone is not the posh buildings we lived in, neither is it the fancy posh Venza, GMC, Lexus or Jaguar we drove in, nor the chains of industries and companies that we were able to acquire. It is the lives we have impacted, the lives we have helped transform during our journey through life; they are the stars that will speak for us for we shall be remembered not for what we would have done, but for that thing which we have done.

It is axiomatic that the best talents are found in the grave, people who have given their bests and who would give more of their best if given another chance. Since we are still alive, we must maximize the opportunity to transform our “Lenbenswelt” – our lived world. While you still live, you’ve got a chance to leave your footprints. The sands are still fresh and are bellowing at you: “c’mon make your impact” those dead heroes we recognize today once tread on this half of life. The world remember them because they inflicted their imprint on the people of their time and reckoned with history to remember them for their acts of bravery. We read about their hurdles and triumphs and wonder how they got to do it. It’s simple! They understood one certain fact that all that mattered was not their personal benefit but a sacrificial living of their lives for humanity. While most of them might have died as peasants, they left us wealth that encompasses all of their wisdom.

When ruminating on this, ask yourself: will I be just another statistic on this side of life that would just come and go? Will I be a force to be reckoned long after I am gone? Before I die, before all they know of me is my name, I can begin to make my impression. Now is the time. What is it that that I can do to effect some positive and quality change in my society? I must begin now. And I say to you, look around you to find some need you can solve, get at it! Your only chance to do it is now. Tomorrow may just be a story that should have been told. Remember, death does not give you an invitation letter and it does not require one from you. It can come five seconds from now. Are you prepared?