Dying To Live

By Chido Gideon

Death is certain for all of us, but it is the one thing we avoid thinking about. Our views on death and loss influences our lives in no small way. Dying to Live is about Godly principles that equip you to overcome the fear of death. Death is not the end. It’s just the beginning of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ink
• Release date: Oct 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839781155

Book preview

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INTRODUCTION

I never really gave much thought to death earlier in my life. Then, in the year 2000, my mother died. She seemed fine that Saturday morning. She woke up as normal, did a few things around the house, as she normally does but later, she called me up to her room and asked me to drive her to the hospital immediately, as she was unable to breathe. Something was wrong with her heart.

I drove like a mad man to a hospital owned by a family member. She got seen pretty much immediately. In the course of a few hours, my father, who was working in the northern part of the country, was on his way home.

Several renowned doctors in the town went in and out of her hospital room. Well known intercessors, Pastors, were called in to pray. It was a very busy day full of activity. But within 24 hours of her getting to the hospital, she died. I had known people who had died, but perhaps for the first time, I came face to face with death in a way I had never done before. This is where my experience and my journey with death began.

Whenever we encounter the death of a loved one, or even the death of a famous celebrity or public figure, it is usually followed by a lot of philosophising about death and life. Our philosophy of life influences the way we live. This is why God gave us an in-depth insight into death and life.

In this book I will try to give you God’s perspective of death. His perspective on death gives us the best perspective on life. When I talk about death, yes, I am referring to the cessation of life in the natural sense. But the fear of death, which we need to overcome, is a fear that is much more than the cessation of life. Death is separation from life. The separation from loved ones, from the hopes and the dreams of the future, from the experience of the present.

I believe that the fear of death in this form also informs our perspective on loss. A loss of a friendship, marriage, money, the failure of a project, the loss of a prized possession. I am looking at death as the separation from life as you know it.

Studies of the brain tell us that in our 20s we stop learning. Our brains get lazy. Unless we make a conscious decision to make learning a regular part of our lives, we spend the rest of our lives defending the knowledge we have acquired so far.

We grow accustomed to a particular way of thinking—a particular perspective of life—and we fight to defend it. Sometimes, even when what we know is toxic, we stick with it because we can’t bear the thought of being separated from it.

In my time working with people through different stages of life, I have seen people hold on to abusive relationships, dead end jobs, toxic friendships, and illogical philosophies, simply because it is what they’ve always known, and the thought