Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
You're Going to Die {Reflections}
In our next chapter, we delve into the transformative ideas from Ernest Becker's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "The Denial of Death." Here, we explore how our deep-seated fear of dying propels human motivation and shapes our lives. The episode underscores the liberating power of acknowledging our mortality to find richer purpose and meaning. By dedicating ourselves to something greater—whether it be community, faith, or family—we can live more fulfilling lives, cherishing each day as an irreplaceable gift. Join us as we ponder the legacy we want to leave behind, guided by a blend of ancient insights and contemporary thought.
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What is up everybody? My name is Ryan Braley and welcome to our Reflections podcast. Mike just told me this is episode number 40. Look at us, man, who would have thought Just a couple of guys in the basement of Central doing a podcast and we have like 10 million listeners. Isn't that what you told me, Mike? Just shy, just shy of 10 million. That's not true. I made that up. I have no idea. But hey, so glad you're here and remember. If you like this, share it with some friends or if you find any of these meaningful, forward on. I'd love for others to hear it, but I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 1:Hey, I read this great Hindu aphorism just the other day and it goes like this. It says the surprise of surprises is that, although everybody who has ever lived in this world has died for some reason, we think that we won't. That's funny, Come on. It says the surprise of all surprises is that, although everybody who's ever lived in this world has died for some reason, we think we won't. And it's true, man. The fifth and final message present in these ancient rites of passage across time and space and geography is this Friends, you and I are going to die. There's no way around it, Despite our modern obsession with trying to live longer and prosper even further.
Speaker 1:And there's this. I don't know if you know this, but there's this incredible trend. It's got a lot of steam and momentum and it's called biohacking, and biohacking is basically this term used to describe various tips and tricks for enhancing the body's ability to function and to live at peak performance and maybe even extend one's own lifespan. And so people are taking more vitamins and nutrient supplements, doing things like red light therapy, sauna, cold therapy, and these are all fine, but there's this obsession with trying to live longer and live at peak performance. There's this tech entrepreneur. I was reading about him.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've heard about this guy. His name is Brian Johnson. This guy spends millions of I don't know him personally, but he spends millions of dollars a year trying to reduce his own biological age. Did you know you can even do this. You can like reduce your biological age, like how old your body seems, rather than your actual chronological age. So this guy's 45 years old, but his biology, his body, measures at an age much younger than this because of all the things he does every day. So he's got this team of like 30 scientists and his daily life is dictated by, like this regimen of diet and monitoring and numerous treatments of all kinds of stuff, like all over his skin laser treatments he does, and these things have. So these all over his skin laser treatments have reduced his skin age by get this, he's 45. It's reduced his skin age by 22 years, so his skin looks like he's about 23 years old, when in fact he's not, he's 45. It's reduced his skin age by 22 years, so his skin looks like he's about 23 years old, when in fact he's not, he's 45. But uh, this is the greatest age reduction in any part of his body. But his overall body, he like, appears younger now.
Speaker 1:But here's the deal. I cannot help but think that down there somewhere deep in this guy I haven't asked him or interviewed him but there's got to be this desire or obsession with trying to live forever. He's trying to escape death, but it's not possible, Like it's never been done before, and maybe this guy undoubtedly this guy will die, trying, I guess. But all the things that live, like biologically, all things that live, die. It's how it works. And so even if you and I are able to extend our lives for, let's say, an extra 30 years, which is fine, we're still going to die and most of us are just not prepared to face this fact or the event itself.
Speaker 1:Because here's the question I'd ask brian, if I could like bro, what's the point? Why do you want to live longer? What's going on? Is it simply an ego project? Are you like? Do you are? Are you like, you know, like? Is it something you're just throwing your whole life and it's like your mission? Or are you actually living longer in order to fill those days with more life-giving events? I mean, do you even have time for life-giving events? So the Stoics would say this I love this.
Speaker 1:Stoics would say you don't actually need more time. We so badly wanna live for one day, one week, one more month, one year longer. We wanna extend our lives, to be longer. But the Stoics would say you don't need to live longer, you need to make better use of whatever time you have. Now, of course, there are folks who died at a young age and it's tragic and we would all say that was too young, they died too early. But many of us who live to be 75, 80 or whatever and we want to live, I wish I had 10 more years or 20 more years. But what would we do with that time? And here's the trick we don't need more time, probably most of us. We need to use our time whatever time we have better. So it raises the question what are we doing with our time? There's this wonderful Charlie Brown comic. I love it. I think I've mentioned it many times in sermons. But Charlie and Snoopy are sitting on the dock of this lake and Snoopy turns to Charlie. He goes hey, Charlie, you know that one day we're going to die. And Charlie goes yeah, I know, I know, dude, but hey, Snoopy, every day, until then we're going to live. I love that.
Speaker 1:Young men, especially those in what Carl Jung calls the first half of life, young women too, they believe, but I think maybe it favors men. They believe themselves to be invincible. And even as we age and I'm speaking on behalf of myself too we're confronted more poignantly with our own mortality. We tend to do all we can to stave it off and to avoid it, and to do more yoga or eat more avocados or maybe not everybody, but some of us do so. When we're younger, we have this I don't know this idea that we're going to live forever and that we can jump out of trees and wrestle an alligator and we're going to live forever. But as we get older we really become confronted with like, hey, this train might not go on forever.
Speaker 1:So Ernest Becker wrote this wonderful book. If you're interested, you should check it out. It's called the Denial of Death. It won the Pulitzer Prize back in the 70s and he writes that being a human being means having and carrying this innate fear of dying, that all of us including Brian, this tech entrepreneur who's trying to live forever all of us really are motivated by a fear of death and dying. And how we manage that fear is what allows us, or disallows us, to flourish in the few years we do have on this planet. So Ernest Becker would say hey, the only way to deal with this innate fear of dying is to one always keep in front of you this fact that you're going to die God forbid anytime soon, but you're going to die and in the meantime, give yourself over to something bigger than yourself. I would call this God. Like, give yourself to your community, to God, to your church, to your children, to your family. Like build something that lasts long after you're gone and use your days to do something because we're going to die, there's no way around it.
Speaker 1:And teaching young men and young women in these rites of passage that they're going to die God forbid anytime soon.
Speaker 1:But it actually liberates them to fully engage in the present moment as a pure gift from God, and to look ahead and to dream about what kind of a person they want to be before they die.
Speaker 1:Yes, we are going to die, but every day until then we get to live. This is really this idea of reflecting on our own mortality and death. It sounds macabre, I know, but it's actually a practicing of a dying before we die. And only in reflecting on our own mortality can we fully let go and find that we are free to live. And young men and women, and actually us older men and women, must know this. So today, may you know that someday hopefully in the distant future, but it will be waiting for us you and I are going to die, but every day until then may we live. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg Peace.
