Don’t Let Death Define You

New York Morning Thought: Coming back home to New York is bittersweet. It’s sweet because I see my family and friends. It’s bitter because I no longer see my mom. Death affects us all and the longer you live the more you experience it. Yet, we must be careful not to develop a culture of death––to be defined by death and let death poison our life. Fear of death and the grief of death can keep us from truly living. As I turned to the Bible early this morning, I read about God’s remedy: his Spirit. Jesus has given us his Spirit––the Spirit of life––and his Spirit enables us to live. Where the Spirit is present there is life, freedom, hope, joy and transformation. When the Spirit is Lord, death is defeated. Death no longer pulls you down. Instead, the Spirit causes you to rise above death’s gravity like a plane soars above dark clouds. Today, don’t allow death, or even the fear of death to rob you from living. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians‬ ‭3:17-18,‬ ‭NASB‬‬).