Rest in peace.

Death is such an odd thing.

It brings so much pain and heartache, yet it also brings hope of something more, something far greater than this present life and circumstance. Death also has a way of bringing peace. The cancer-stricken woman who was battling cancer for twenty years is finally free from pain. The man who has been a vegetable for ten years due to a severe stroke is finally out of that state and free to dance. Beauty from pain.

I've heard it said that every morning, you must have a funeral. Seems like a cynical way to view life, but in all honesty, it's the best way to live. Dead to yourself, your dreams, your desires and alive to whatever God will bring your way through the new day. I pray the same thing as Paul: "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Death is a place of rest, a place of quiet, a place of peace. I want Nicole Boucher to be dead. Because it's only when Nicole Boucher is dead that Jesus Christ can truly come alive in my heart. When I am willing to die, I will truly "rest in peace." The amazing peace that only my Savior has to offer.

Today, above all else, I choose to rest in peace.