Nothing Happens After You Die

Photo by krzhck on Unsplash

I handed him a Raspberry-Lime Spindrift and sat on a bench across from him.  The sun beat down on my too-white-for-August arms and legs.  I closed my eyes and delighted in the warmth, releasing the tense goosebumps from my air-conditioning-chilled body.  Funerals are rarely fun.

But funerals are often a time to reflect.  For some reason, the man in the casket, who was here with us living and breathing last week, will never crack open a Spindrift while cracking a joke at the same time.  His days on earth were numbered, and so are mine. 

Small talk ensued with my Spindrift Buddy.  Funerals connect us with people we rarely see, an unplanned family reunion of sorts. But not everyone is used to being around me. I speak the way I write.  I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. References to God and prayer and thanksgiving easily flow from my tongue, because they are in my mind and in my heart. “From an overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45) 

I actually don’t remember what I said that shifted our friendly conversation, but I do remember my Spindrift Buddy’s response.

“When I was a believer, I used to see things the way you see them, but now that I am an unbeliever, I understand things from a different perspective.”

I stared at him in awe.  He had somehow flipped the narrative on how I see the world completely upside down, making it appear as if unbelief is the superior side of Christ!  I had grown up without Jesus and became a believer as an adult.  This man had grown up with Jesus and stopped believing as an adult. We each know what it is like to both believe and to reject Jesus as Lord. Only one of us can be right. Intrigued, I began asking questions.

If you don’t mind my asking, what led you to stop believing in Jesus?

I started reading about other religions and came to realize that all religions are simply man’s attempt to create a fictitious story about what happens to people after they die.  Hindus believe their soul are reborn into a different body.  Muslims believe their soul ends up in Barzakh, awaiting judgment. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe there is no immortal soul, and the dead person exists in God’s memory to be resurrected, not in heaven, but on earth.  Buddhists believe they are constantly reborn into a different body until they finally reach Nirvana, perfect peace.  Christians can’t figure out what they believe. 

Some think you need to complete a bunch of sacraments to go to Heaven.  Others think you need to be baptized.  Still others think you earn brownie points by going to church and performing good deeds.  Others think you need to repent of your sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior to go to Heaven.  There’s no way of knowing which one is right.  I finally realized it’s just a farce, all of them.  

So now that you’re on the other side of faith, how do you reconcile eternal questions like, ‘What happens to you after you die?”

Nothing happens after you die.

Nothing?

Nothing. There is nothing after this life.

So are we just a collection of molecules, randomly thrown together in such a way that we can think and eat and breathe and deliberately move, but none of it has a purpose?

Yes.

So if there is nothing after life on this earth, if you do not have an eternal soul, then what is your purpose in life?

My purpose in life is to make the most I can with the time I have here.  I want to take care of the earth for future generations. 

I don’t understand why we should care about the earth and future generations if there is no purpose to life on earth.

We want to leave the earth in good condition so future generations can enjoy what we have been able to enjoy.  For example, I want to be cremated.  We are wasting precious land resources by burying the dead.  If we simply cremate the dead, we don’t need to use up our natural resources.

You’re obviously hard-working.  You’re very successful.  You’re an upright citizen.  If there is no purpose to your life, then why are you living like there’s a purpose?  You are adhering to some sort of moral code.  Where did that moral code come from?

I just live doing what I think is best.  I work hard.  I treat people fairly.  I don’t know that my morality came from anywhere; it’s just the way I like to live.

Don’t you think it’s a gamble?  The Bible says we need to repent of our sins and believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and we will be saved.

But you see, I don’t believe in the Bible.

But what if you’re wrong?  Does the thought not keep you awake at night?  When your ashes are being spread in the various places you have designated, if you do have an eternal soul, where will it be?

If there really is a god, I believe he would look at my life and be pleased and take me to Heaven, if there really were to be such a place.

So you would end up in Heaven based on what? 

Based on what I think.

I went home in a bit of a tizzy, committed to praying daily for my Spindrift Buddy.  Did I say the right things?  Did I speak enough truth into his life?  Did my questions cause him enough discomfort to ignite a spark to send him on a journey of discovery? How can someone think truth into existence?

I scanned my bookshelves, attempting to find the perfect book to send to him.  Tim Keller’s The Reason for God?  J.I. Packer’s Knowing God? Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ? 

Any of these would have been wonderful, but I had Amazon send him C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity.

Why? Because I opened Lewis’ book to chapter 8, ‘The Great Sin’.  

“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free…I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice…Pride leads to every other vice…

It is the complete anti-God state of mind…Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good, we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil.” (Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis)

How many in this world are living life like my Spindrift Buddy?  Hard-working, nice, and convinced that if there is a god, they will go to Heaven because they’re good?

God’s Word tells us otherwise.

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

“The wages of sin is death.”  (Romans 6:23)

“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

“For God so loved the world, he sent his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)

Don’t gamble with eternity.  Repent and believe today.

© Tessa Lind

First published in Pursuing Perfection on Substack by Tessa Lind, tessalind.substack.com