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Now that I'm getting older I feel that death is just as natural as life itself and it's nothing to fear. I wonder how many people who talk about eternal life have ever really considered what that would be like. Can you imagine being alive 100 billion years from now living the same life that never ends? I mean how much rejoicing can someone do before it becomes very very tiresome? I happened to get into a conversation with a man in his mid eighties who was sitting next to me at a bar in Nashville last summer. It was really kind of sad. He was living in a nursing home and every once in awhile he'd take a taxi to a bar or restaurant just to get out of the place. I remember that he told me that he was just tired of living and was just wore out and he was actually looking forward to his own death. He just felt that he'd lived long enough and experienced all that life had to offer and saw no point in continuing his existence. I thought about that guy for days after that because I felt bad for him but at the same time what he was saying made sense to me. Even if you never grew old and suffered the effects of aging it seems like you'd eventually be ready for your life to end and you'd feel a desire for eternal rest. Any thoughts?
Interesting question, MG, but no, I think you would want to live forever if the living is exciting and enjoyable. I really believe that most of what makes us feel "tired of living" is the "wear and tear" and aging on our bodies, and possibly the accumulation of disappointments, loss of dreams etc. that we experience here on earth. I think it's these kind of things that sometimes make us feel as we age that "enough is enough." I don't believe in heaven will have these "downers." And let me add, I don't think heaven will consist of just rejoicing. Of course, none of knows really, but I think there will interesting things to do in heaven.
Think I'd agree with what you said MG although I would like to be around when they find life on other planets....and of course I'd love to be around when god is 100% disproved, just so I could say "Nah Nah!! Told ya so!
Well I for one am looking forward to living eternally. I think the idea of just not existing is really sad and depressing. The thing is even if we might think it will get tiresome, we have no idea what things will be like. We will think differently, we will look at things differently. For a rather pathetic example my husband has told me when he was younger he absolutely loved and adored his G.I Joe and could not get enough of it. Well he absolutely could never imagine not wanting to play with it 24/7. Things are a bit different now that he's older. I kinda think it'll be similar to that if that makes any sense. I know it's kinda the opposite of what you said but I think it kinda applys. (at least in my sometimes weird mind
As a Christian, I don't really know how I'm supposed to feel. I am not afraid of death, because I know that I will live eternally in Heaven with my Heavenly Father. Sometimes I feel guilty, because I'm not ready to die. I have children that I still need to raise. And, wow, I can't wait to the day that I have grandchildren. And what about greatgrandchildren? There are songs on the radio that say things like, "when are you coming back", "I can't wait", I don't know, stuff like that. And I think, is that how I'm supposed to feel? I know that when we all meet in Heaven it will be a glorious time, but I can say that I am not so anxious to leave this life. I liken it to when I was pregnant. I ablsolutely loved being pregnant! Feeling that child inside me was remarkable! And as much as I wanted to see my new baby, I was always a little disappointed to have to give up being pregnant. I can remember being pregnant with my 5 child (knowing that this would be my last) and waking up one night a crying because it hit me that this was the last time that I would feel a child move inside me. Does that make sense? And, also, I look forward to hearing others views on this...good thread!
Can you imagine being alive 100 billion years from now living the same life that never ends? I mean how much rejoicing can someone do before it becomes very very tiresome? Any thoughts?
Eternity isn't so much a straight line that never ends. It's all the space around the line.
Now that I'm getting older I feel that death is just as natural as life itself and it's nothing to fear. I wonder how many people who talk about eternal life have ever really considered what that would be like. Can you imagine being alive 100 billion years from now living the same life that never ends? I mean how much rejoicing can someone do before it becomes very very tiresome? I happened to get into a conversation with a man in his mid eighties who was sitting next to me at a bar in Nashville last summer. It was really kind of sad. He was living in a nursing home and every once in awhile he'd take a taxi to a bar or restaurant just to get out of the place. I remember that he told me that he was just tired of living and was just wore out and he was actually looking forward to his own death. He just felt that he'd lived long enough and experienced all that life had to offer and saw no point in continuing his existence. I thought about that guy for days after that because I felt bad for him but at the same time what he was saying made sense to me. Even if you never grew old and suffered the effects of aging it seems like you'd eventually be ready for your life to end and you'd feel a desire for eternal rest. Any thoughts?
Yes, the story is sad. That man spent all his 80-some years and didn't find an answer, or reason, to live. But the reason, and the answer, does indeed exist. We don't get a choice in the matter of eternity: because we will all live forever. But, we DO get a choice in the quality of that eternal life: it will either be great and wonderful, or dismal and frightening. Only a fraction of it will be in our bodies we have now. Death is a door. What you will find on the other side of that door depends on what you decide now about God and Jesus Christ. Either we believe His claims as to who He is, or we don't. (how many miracles must He work, before people will believe?) We either receive Him, or reject Him, it is our decision. We can spend eternity with God, or without God. Personally, I can't imagine trying to live without Him...I don't believe I will EVER get tired of living, as long as God is in my life. (Eternal rest is a misconception: we don't sit around on a cloud playing a harp for eternity...God gives us things to do that are important...it will NOT be dull!)This life we live now in our flesh is a preview...kind of a testing and proving ground...the real living is afterwards. We will all have to walk through death's door, but it is up to us whether we will be prepared.
I'm not afraid of it as it will just be like the billions of years before I was born, no pain, no suffering, just nothing. That is a depressing thought I guess but I won't know. In the fullness of time either religous people or atheists will win the argument about wether or not God exists. The most depressing thing is that I won't be around to glote!
Well, eternal life is something I have been scared of since I was little, forever is just a really long time and infinity is a lot higher than I have ever been able to count, a year used to seem like a long time to me, it still does but not as much, but FOREVER is just dreadful to think about. But what I think is important is that I trust that my God won't let me get bored. And like Pladecalvo said, it would be cool to visit life on other planets, this is an infinite universe we live in so I suppose there would always be new things to do. Actually, nonexistance seems kind of scary as well, I always used to picture it as consious nonexistance, like you're just a thought out there somewhere in space, in the darkness without form of voice, just floating around. But I guess if I am completely extinguished it wouldn't be too bad because I wouldn't be able to complain about it. Anyways, I feel I am prepared for either rout but think eternal life is what will be there for me.
Sorry if that didn't make any sense.
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Live forever...oh, yeah!
but no, I think you would want to live forever if the living is exciting and enjoyable. I really believe that most of what makes us feel "tired of living" is the "wear and tear" and aging on our bodies, and possibly the accumulation of disappointments, loss of dreams etc. that we experience here on earth. I think it's these kind of things that sometimes make us feel as we age that "enough is enough." I don't believe in heaven will have these "downers." 
