WHAT IF TOMMOROW NEVER COMES?
"We were once like you and you will soon be like us"
These are the words written at the entrance in one of the cemeteries at Europe. When you consider the words carefully, it appears as though the dead are communicating with the living who either visit the cemetery to burry a corpse or visit their relatives. The subject of death and salvation has been discussed extensively right from the first century. This message seems not to address the same problem but to look at another Deeping hole with respect to death.
"The house where I lived was about to be seized just because I could not pay the rent. I posted my situation on Facebook and WhatsApp looking for help but all I could get was two likes and zero comments, so I sent 250 messages to my contact list requesting for a loan of five hundred Ghana cedis but unfortunately, only ten people responded. Six out of the ten people said they could not help me and only one out of the four who promise to help me gave me some money. The other three people gave me no excuse and never picked my calls again. In the end, I was ejected. I did not have a place to sleep, I walk in the dark looking for options and unfortunately, a thief stole my empty wallet with my Identity card. In his haste to get away from me, he crossed a road without looking, he was badly hit down by a car without his body being identified, only my wallet containing the identity card served as a marked. The news spread quickly, the next day that I had died. 628 people posted on my Facebook wall on how they knew me and how kind I was. A committee was formed by my supposed faithful friends who raised 9000 Cedis to feed people at my funeral. My work colleagues who never existed while I struggle to pay my rent organized themselves and raised 7500 cedis for my coffin, tents and chairs. I have to be buried in a coffin worth 6000 cedis, but as they hastily bought it, there was a man who sold it to them for 2500 cedis saying it was his contribution. The family met again, it was a rare opportunity for the family to meet again. For my funeral, the family contributed 2500 cedis. Everybody wanted to volunteer to show that they were participating. They printed T-shirts and Polo's for than 1500 cedis. Imagine the scene when I show up on the day of my burial".
In Ghana, Africa and some part of the world, people celebrate the dead more that the living. In the illustration above, the same man who could not raise an amount of 500 cedis for his rent while alive could raise hoping 29000 cedis while he was steam dead. If we have the opportunity to help, why will you help the dead instead of the living? Every minute someone leave this world behind, we are all in line without realizing it. We never know how many people are before us, we cannot step out of the line, and we cannot avoid the line. Why we wait in line to be served with death, make moments calms, make priorities, make time, make your gifts known, make your voice heard, make somebody smile, make the change, make love, make up, make peace, make sure to have no regrets and above all, make sure you are ready. One African proverb says "The fall of the brown leaves is the reminder to the green ones".
Remember that a life lived for others is a life worth living. Help the living but not the dead.