Waddell: Death, language and self control
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- Published on Sunday, September 23, 2012
By: Ken Waddell
myWestman.ca
We hear stories from time to time of ‘near death’ and ‘return from death’ experiences. I have no personal knowledge of the experience but I do clearly remember a man recounting his own experience.
The man in question often drank a lot of whiskey at the end of his working day. Well into his drinking he recounted to me that he drank to try and forget his accident and the fact that he nearly died.
There’s no question that had it not been for the intervention of friend at the accident site, he would have died.He said something one night that I will never forget. He said “I was dying and as I walked up to the pearly gates, by Jesus Christ, they were closed.” That really bothered him; troubled him for many years.
The prospect that he was dying and the gates to heaven appeared to be closed meant to him that he wasn’t going to get to heaven.I suggested that it is only “by Jesus Christ that the gates will be opened to us.” I am not sure if he believed me.I find it rather interesting that when a person is in trouble or scared, they often blurt out the words “Jesus” or “Jesus Christ”.I am totally guilty of that myself.
It’s more than crass swearing; it’s an urgent expression of fear or concern. I find it really strange that some call out the name of Jesus when in fear or trouble or even when angry.
We are culturally Christian so I wonder what a Hindu or a Muslim says when they are in sudden fear or anger. Our language, our expressions have become very much a matter of lower quality over the years.
So much of our outburst language is either an aberration of the spiritual or religious or it relates to sexual and bodily functions. Guilty again. Not happy with the way my language goes sometimes and not happy when I hear it from others.I often wonder if we wouldn’t be better off if our language skills, as a society in general, were elevated.
If one reads about Teddy Roosevelt or Winston Churchill, one finds the language of the eras of those men and their contemporaries is of a much higher standard than what one hears today. Now I am sure that both Churchill and Roosevelt and their contemporaries were prone to downright foul-mouthed utterances, but in public they could practice a much higher standard.
You might call it hypocritical, but a least they could elevate their prose to a higher standard. Few can even claim that today as we all reel towards the gutter in a linguistic sense. The use of a higher level of language, not a snooty or arrogant usage but just a higher level, shows a certain amount of self-control.
Self-control is a highly-esteemed value in Christian teachings, probably in many other teachings a well. People over the centuries have seen it as a good thing to aspire to. Maybe we should all try a little harder.However, there’s one area where trying harder doesn’t cut it. Many believe that if we try harder those heavenly gates mentioned earlier will be opened more readily for us. No amount of our effort opens those gates, it’s only byJesus Christ and his sacrifice that the gates are opened.
There’s a time to try harder and a time to just have faith. PS: I got a quote sent to me this week attributed to John Wayne. “Life is hard, it’s a lot harder if you are stupid.
