The Power of Final

I was listening to a radio show a few days ago, and the guest was discussing the passing of her father.  She talked about how death holds such power over us because it is so final.  I have pondered this for the last few days, and I think that we can learn something from this.

Death is indeed final, and its power over us is increased by this attribute.  We can look at that as a bad thing, but I'd like to try and turn it around and see if we can glean some value from it.  A final decision, either by God or by ourselves, can shape our lives and the lives of those around us.  Can we use the power of a death-like finality earlier in our lives?

I've also been pondering integrity.  It has many definitions, but one definition could be simply this: integrity is the personal power to make your word into the limit of your behavior.  If you have integrity, then when you say no, you mean no; when you say yes, you mean yes.  (See Matthew 5)  If you have integrity, then you can make your word final.  To be clear, I don't mean that integrity allows you to impose your will on others.  It's actually quite the opposite.  Integrity is your power to affect your own actions, not someone else's.

Back to finality.  Death is scary because it's a one-way door.  It may be one-way, but if we believe God, the other side of that door can be an infinity of experience in the presence of God.  What if we practiced going through that one-way door while we're here on earth?  What if we made some decisions and developed the integrity to hold the walls those decisions make so firmly that they are final?

I suggest looking at your life and finding the pain.  Be bold enough to look straight into your soul and all your relationships and point to the spot that is causing pain and speak out loud exactly what the problem is.  Then take that problem in prayer before God, counsel with the scriptures, your spouse, your parents and your church leaders.  Decide on a course of action that has the power to resolve that pain and then walk through that one-way door.  If you follow those steps, I believe it will result in a life more filled with the Spirit, closer to the presence of God if you will.  If you walk through that one-way door, you open yourself to a multitude of experience in the presence of God's Spirit.  You'll also be able to heal the pain, true healing that only comes from approaching the Savior in humility.

I'd say that's worth an experiment.  I have a few points of pain in my life that I'm going to try this on.  I'll let you know how it goes.