David Tennant Does Hamlet Better Than You, and I Talk A Lot About Death

I've borrowed Hamlet from Laura, because David Tennant is in it, and, well, no other explanation is necessary.  I'd heard he was especially good at performing Shakespeare, but I half-thought that was simly fangirling.  No!  He is really good!  I actually understand the meaning of what he's saying, and oh my word, the emotion he pours into it. 

His "to be or not to be" speech was beautiful.  And convincing (says the girl who can be convinced of anything).  In the beginning, he had me hooked.  Yeah, why stay alive?  Ugh, slings and arrows of fortune, they are so tedious and unending, and life is full of sadness!  Who needs life?

Then he answered his own questions, and changed my mind.  We don't kill ourselves because what lies after?  Egads!  Better to put up with our lot here than to risk the unknown any earlier than we have to.

And yes.  I'm aware that as someone who believes in the Bible, fear of death is a bit silly.  But is it?  For awhile now I've been wondering how much of Christianity is made up, and how much is actually Biblical.  The classic example is that many people think, "God helps those who help themselves" is a Bible verse.  But it's really nearly exactly the opposite of what God teaches.  Romans 5:6 says, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."

So what about death?  I admit to being a little bit in love with death.  I always have been.  I was semi-suicidal during my teenage years.  Not from any great tragedy, but because I wanted to escape the monotony of living and I really believed that the afterlife would be better.  I've since embraced Paul's conclusion that, "I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body." (Philippians 1:23,24)

I don't mean this to be dark.  A huge part of my interest in death, (me and the poets, such lovely conversationalists) is the unknown of it all.  Yes, I believe that God will take care of me after I die.  But how much of what that looks like do I really know?

I tend to think most descriptions of heaven and/or God are heavily symbolic.  I don't think a human mind could really grasp those ideas or images, which is why we get pictures of spinning wheels and golden roads in the Bible.  And is there anywhere that says we will be reunited with our loved ones?  The only thing I can think of is the opposite, where we are told there are no marriages in heaven. (Matthew 22:23-30)

Could turn out that we do.  Maybe we'll be so enamoured of worshipping God (which as near as I can tell, is the most solid fact of what the afterlife will be like), we won't care about our loved ones.  I don't know.

I don't know!  That's so fascinating and so terrifying.  Even with the hope that Jesus gives us, so much of death is unknown.  And I love that.  I'm coming to understand that hope isn't worth anything if we KNOW what we are hoping for, how it will happen, and when.

No, hope is powerful when we hope in spite of uncertainty.  I'm pretty uncertain about death.  I will follow Hamlet's lead and endure the sorrows of this life.  But because of my uncertainty, my hope in Jesus is all the stronger.  I like that.