FIRST, while this title was meant to grab your attention (as all good titles are), this is not a melodramatic announcement of a bad doctor's report. I'm not physically dying any more than any other healthy thirty-something on the planet.
I got married right out of high school. I was older than I'd ever been before, and felt mature for an eighteen-year-old, but I was a baby. I changed my last name, and added to my familial allegiances. Almost immediately I was assailed with doubts about committing the rest of my life to this other person. And I died a little.
In short order, I was pregnant with our first child. We were elated. I trudged through morning sickness... and swollen ankles... and all-around discomfort... Then I gave birth, and zombied my way through breastfeeding, and dirty diapers, and sleep deprivation. Then I did it again three more times. And I died a little.
As my children grew, they began to take interest in things that hold absolutely NO appeal for me. But I attended ball games, and played video games, and read books, and splashed in COLD water because they asked, even though I would rather have spent those moments doing other things. And I died a little.
And when I fix that last taco after the children have already made PBJ sandwiches, but one of them says, "Oh! I love tacos! Will you trade with me?" And I say yes this time. I die a little.
Or when there is finally a quiet moment and I have settled in with a cup of coffee and a book. Then the silence is broken by "Mama?", or "Sweetie?" And I respond by putting down my coffee and my book and serving one more time... I die a little.
The list could go on, and if you're reading this, you can probably think of dozens of moments of your own. If we dwell on all we've given up, we could end up feeling really morbid and depressed. But as I thought about and looked up verses that talk about dying (I was actually thinking there was a verse that says to "die to self"), I was so encouraged! We're not just supposed to die. We're supposed to die to sin so that we can LIVE!
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Romans 6:1-5
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
2 Corinthians 4:16-17
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