Memento Mori: Consider Your Mortality

One moment you're here. The next you're not. No announcement. No countdown. Just gone.

Think about what fills your mind right before it happens. The thing at work you're stressed about. The text you forgot to reply to. The weekend plans. The five-year plan. All of it just stops.

Your body has no idea. Your heart beats at 10:47 the same way it did at 10:46. It doesn't know there won't be a 10:48. Your lungs take in air like they always have. A billion breaths before this one. Each one assuming there will be another.

The strange part is that everything else keeps going. The drink you poured sits on the counter getting cold. Your phone buzzes with messages. A meeting starts somewhere without you. The sun goes down and comes back up. It doesn't notice.

We all know this. We carry it around with us. Sometimes we think about it. Then we put it away and get on with things. What choice do we have? If we thought about it all the time we'd never move. If we never thought about it we'd waste our days on nothing.

But maybe we've been looking at it wrong. Death isn't just an ending. It's what makes room. The leaves fall so new ones can grow. The old guard steps aside so the young can step up. Your grandparents made way for your parents. Your parents will make way for you. And one day you'll make way for someone who doesn't exist yet.

This isn't sad. It's how things work. It's how things have always worked. Life isn't a line that stops. It's a river that keeps flowing. You're not the water. You're just one wave in it.

So maybe the point isn't to fear the end. It's to play your part well while you're here. And when your time comes, to step aside with grace. Knowing that what comes after you will be just as alive as you were.

For the Christian, this isn't cause for despair. There's a time for everything. A time to be born and a time to die. This isn't fatalism. It's trusting the one who set it all in motion. And your life was never really yours to begin with. It was given to you. You're a steward, not an owner. So when the time comes to give it back, you're just returning what was borrowed. But here's the thing. Christ went into the grave and came back out. And he promises the same for those who follow him. So yes, we make way for the next generation here. But we're also moving toward something else. Not an ending. A beginning.