#IAmAChristian

"Are you a Christian?"

This was the question asked by a young man armed with several weapons, standing in the doorway of a classroom located on a small Oregon college campus.   He asked the instructor first.  When she responded affirmatively, he fired a fatal shot.  Some of the students also confessed Christ and died almost instantly.  Others who did not profess faith received flesh wounds.

In the end, nine were dead and a number of others wounded, some critically.

Almost immediately the story of their courage went viral on social media.  A presidential candidate was seen holding a sign in support reading "I am a Christian."  T-shirts were made with #IAmAChristian emblazoned on the front, in an attempt to identify with the slain and remember them.

It's not the only time I have thought about my own mortality.

Most of us deal with death by buying life insurance.  We do those things that everybody recommends, not able to deny the event intellectually but maybe, just maybe, not acknowledging it in any real way.

Christians know that this life is temporary, but often we live as though it were not.  I know that is true for me.  The days string along, one after another, and each gray hair or wrinkle just irritates me in a superficial way.  Well, what hair dye shall I buy this month?

But when we read the New Testament we see an entirely different attitude.  For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain, the Apostle Paul wrote.  He knew that death was a positive thing because it meant going home.  Going home to be with Christ.

Jesus spoke of these matters in very real and graphic terms.  He spoke of the the rich man dying and experiencing torments (Luke 16:19-31).  He spoke of the Day of Judgment and the Resurrection.

Peter wrote of the heavens "passing away" (II Peter 3:10) and the world burning up.  His epistles exhort us to live as "sojourners and pilgrims" (I Pet 2:11)--this place is only temporary, and our "real" home--and our real citizenship--is in heaven.

I needed to be reminded that anything less than a genuine longing for the "blessed hope"--the return of Christ--is an indication of worldliness and spiritual sloth on my part.

He may not return in my lifetime, but in a way, that's irrelevant.  I may die today and then I will see Him.  I will see the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  For me.

Those who lay dead in that classroom were ushered into glory.  They are Home.

#IAmAChristian.