"Die before you die. There is no chance after." Focusing on Lent.

I am re-reading C.S. Lewis' book "Till We Have Faces." I feel as though it is having an even greater impact on me now than it did when I first read it. Tonight at the International church in Korea, we had a Lent Service to begin the season of Lent. It is a season of remembering our

mortality--we are from the dust, and to the dust we shall return. Most of all, Lent is a season of remembering the journey of Christ towards the cross, and hoping for the Resurrection. In this time, we consider the things in our lives that prevent us from following Christ. Therefore, in this season, we repent and fast those things that enslave us to the world in order that we may be bound to Christ.

Tonight, as I was reading "Till We Have Faces," I was struck by Your truth. The main character was about to kill herself in an attempt to escape the shame she carried...but the voice of a god stopped her and said:

"Do not do it...You cannot escape {Shame} by going to the deadlands, for {Shame} is there also. Die before you die. There is no chance after."

Therein lies the truth: "Die before you die. There is no chance after."

We must die to the evil and the shame and the death that enslaves us to ourselves. We must die by putting our lives into the hands of Christ who can resurrect us. For only He has overcome the power of evil's child: eternal death. If we do not die before our deaths, we will be led by our shame into eternal "deadlands."

One of my theology professors in college said, "God does not send people to hell...he simply honors their will to reject Him."

So it is with us. God has given us a choice to be with Him, or to not. Only in Him is there life, and apart from Him, there are only "the deadlands."

In this season of Lent, let us remember our mortality, and let us choose life.

"May we die before we die,"

....in order that we may live eternally in Christ,

" for there is no chance after."

amen.