The fear of non-existence (with an unrelated introduction)

The first thing you may notice when you read this post is the time it was posted at: around 3:30 am. Okay, it says 1:30 but that's because I incorrectly estimated my time zone... For those of you reading this who know me (none of you), you will probably be gasping for breath as you realize I have an exam tomorrow that I haven't studied for. Should this alarm both you and me? Yes. Will I be studying tonight? No, I'll be writing a blog post that probably no one will read that is more or less inconsequential to my life.

At this point you may also ask: "Who do you keep addressing if you believe that no one views your blog?" There is no simple answer to that... I am addressing "you". If a blog is posted and noone reads it, does it even exist? Perhaps this is strange offshoot of Shrodinger's box... No one knows if this blog is alive or dead! Did I just confuse you with an irrelevant physics concept? It's okay, I'm taking physics next semester so I will most likely be opening a sister blog to this one entitled "Physical sojourners". Am I serious? No, of course not... That would be silly.

The next order of business is to ask a favour of "you", whoever you may be (unless you are a web-crawler; in that case this does not apply to you). If you actually read this post; maybe you are even a "frequenter" of this blog, would you please email me letting me know? I mean, it's not that I have an inferiority complex... Sometimes I just feel unloved... So if you would be so kind as to email spiritualsojourners@hotmail.com, then I will maybe feel a bit of hope with the knowledge that SOMEONE out there cares/pretends to care about what I have to say.



That being said, lets talk about a topic. The topic for today is "The Fear of Non-existence". Now this is a very personal topic for me, so you will most likely not be "lolling" as much as you usually do. Not that the occasional lol is forbidden or anything, but try to save your lols until the end so I don't have to hear them.

Non-existence has been a somewhat secret fear of mine for quite some time. Ever since I was a wee lad, I would always get intensely afraid at the thought of not existing after death. I know people always say that non-existence would not be "that bad" because it COULDN'T be that bad because you're dead and you don't know you don't exist. The people that usually say this tend to get this big smile on their face as they marvel at their own cleverness. Well I have something to say to these people: "Not existing would suck". Go ahead and TRY to correct me, but we all know that it would be horrendous. No one wants to stop existing... Well, at least not me!

The fear of non-existence can seem overwhelming at times and strangely enough has been used as a tool of both God and Satan throughout my life... Isn't that bizarre? It's like my fear is a hammer in a workshop and sometimes God comes in and builds a chair with it... But other times Satan picks it up and wacks me over the head with it! Ouch! This proverbial hammer seems to be capable of helping or hindering my walk with God... I told you it was bizarre! Let me give you some examples of the work of the hammer. First of all, there's Satan's side of the situation. He uses the fear of non-existence to frighten me and weaken my faith. He tries to harm me emotionally and sometimes he succeeds to some extent. Then there is God's side of the situation. God uses my fear of non-existence to call me to Him. The fear shows me that I shouldn't waste my life because some day I will die. For those of you that didn't know, there is an aspect of the fear of non-existence that is subsequent to the phobia: you think about death an awful lot. This DOES have quite positive effects and it often leads me into prayer. So is the fear of non-existence a good thing or a bad thing? I think it's both.

The fear of non-existence is a hammer that could be used for good or for evil. It is a good thing because it IS a healthy thing to fear. As Christians, we SHOULD be afraid of non-existence because we were created to live forever. We should also remember that we are all going to die. This should bring us to God and prevent us from wasting our life. The fear of non-existence becomes a tool for evil when we let it corrupt our faith. We should fear it, but we should also know and believe that we have been given eternal life. If we let this fear be used for evil, it will start to getting to us and we will start to doubt our faith. When we get such fears, we need to pray and remember that God has promised eternal life to us... And God is not a liar. Remember, we should also recognise that it IS natural to fear non-existence...

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

-Ecclesiastes 3:11

God has set eternity in our hearts. We desire to live forever because we were created that way. Some of us feel that we will never die... They are right.