I lost my dear mum and dad on January 23 and February 1, 2009 respectively. These were the closest people to me I have ever lost. One of the questions I have kept asking since then is, why do we really mourn the dead?

We do for different reasons. In fact the reasons are legion (both wise and foolish) that the space I have allocated for myself here may not be big enough to capture them. One thing I know, however is that most of the reasons we mourn the dead has nothing to do with the dead. They have to do with us. Please think about this deeply.

I think it is not all the dead, who should be mourned.

And I submit that the wise only mourn the dead for ONLY two reasons (please note the emphasis on the word, ‘ONLY.’ I did it to establish EXCLUSIVITY):

1. Where they are not sure by the testimony of the life of the dead that he/she prepared to rest in the bosom of the LORD, who shed His blood for the World.

2. If they are not sure by divine permutations that the dead fulfilled destiny. That is, if they are not sure that the dead fulfilled the purpose for which he/she was sent here by GOD by maximising his/her potentials deposited in him/her by GOD, thereby ‘dying empty’ in the words of Dr. Myles Monroe.

What I have found is that those who depart from here to rest in the bosom of their LORD and those who die empty do not DIE. They live FOREVER! They leave no room for the world to mourn them, except for the ignorant, who mourn for every other reason except the two outlined above.

I guess that is why the number one passion of the wise is to help people to make peace with their Lord and inspire them to deliberately live a life of purpose and meaning, thereby fulfilling their destiny.

The wise understands that the real sadness in the case of the dead is not death. It is that many do not allow the life of the dead and the departure to instruct them unto sober reflections and a quick review of their own lives. In most cases grieve takes over the place of sober reflection and the life of the departed is not able to teach any meaningful and necessary lessons.

While there is a place for grieve as I have also lost dear ones in the past, I think grieve must not be allowed to live forever. It must very quickly give way for lessons, which will instruct us for better relationship with God and service to humanity.

‘What’s your life? It is but a vapour which appears for a while and it vanishes,’ so submits the Holy Writ. Are you prepared to meet your LORD? Are you living to fulfil your destiny? Are you on an intentional journey to die empty? May the Lord teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.  Have an INSPIRED week.

Taiwo Akinlami Sober on his knees on the Lord’s day.

www.taiwoakinlami.com