THERE were trumpets and fanfare as his coffin was carried! A few months ago, I heard about a funeral in America of a famous religious apologist, attended by the former Vice-President of the United States, Mike Pence.
I have listened often to this preacher and was always amazed by the power of his mind, as he argued and debated principles and theology and startled the world with brilliant thought.
Many spoke about him, and when my mother told me many years before that he was related to her, I did not spare a moment in telling this to all and sundry, whenever his name was mentioned.
How we love to drop names of the rich and famous, don’t we? After the funeral, and after many thousands the world over wondered why God had taken him away at quite a relatively young age, and when he was doing such a great job for God, rumours started circulating about his behind the scenes life: Dark, sordid, and sexually demoralizing stuff!
At first, they were rubbished by the family and the ministry he had created, but when his family itself, employed an investigating agency to find out the truth, they were faced with the horrifying truth that he, the man, who loved the pulpit, was a womanizer!
“Bob you’re related to him, aren’t you?” And today I put my head down in shame.
But I raise same head as my thoughts go to that funeral. What a grand spectacle it must have been.
Imagine you and I at a funeral where the second most powerful man in the world is not only attending but also speaking.
We look at the grand spectacle and in fascination and awe, we whisper, “What better way to go, than this!“
But if only we could have looked at the other side, as after the last speech his soul left the church, and was greeted outside the very doors, not by tall angels, who would lead him to his Maker, but by Satan’s own little army of devils squealing away and saying, “Come on pal, we’ve been waiting for you, there’s a furnace and burning fire for you to stoke for eternity!”
Harsh as it may sound, there are many here in our country, who will find this out soon. Men and women who live double lives, holy and pious to the outside world, but carnal and lecherous, cheaters and liars behind closed doors!
All I can say is that our time on earth is brief, just three score years and ten or maybe twenty, when we can get away with hypocrisy, but there’s an eternity waiting, just after the twenty one gun salute, and it’s an eternity without any trumpets and fanfare, just the job of a coal stoking stevedore, in an all quenching fire, without a break for fresh air.. forever!
