How To Die In Peace.

Who isn’t scared of death? Who doesn’t panic for the uncertainty that tomorrow holds for us all, in a world where everyday we live is a special gift? In the words of famous gangster rapper 50 Cent: …death gotta be easy, cause life is hard.

How can we Rest In Perfect Peace if we can’t die smiling?

Akon summarized the pains of living this “uncertain” and “hard” life in his music track “Ghetto”. The 43-year-old Senegalese-American said:

…No need to cherish luxuries
‘Cause everything come and go
Even the life that you have is borrowed
‘Cause you’re not promised tomorrow
So live your life
As if every day is gon’ be your last…

Good words of wisdom from the African legend. We’ve been advised to live our lives like everyday will be our last. In this way, it seems to me there’ll be no afterlife. Or rather, there’s no need to worry about what happens after we’ve lived “the worry-free life”, at least, we can push it forward until we’re done stomping and screaming “yeah” to the beats.

When the record stops playing, we all come to realize there’s more to life and reality than “the pleasures of the moment”.

Living everyday like it’s our last doesn’t mean giving up hope or living a “carefree life”; it’s about accepting death as a necessary end; It’s about peace of mind; it’s about preparing for the “unknown afterlife” so when it finally comes, even the people we leave behind will remember we lived well while we had the chance.

Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.–when the going was good–asked in one of their lyrics: …“Why am I dying to live, if I’m just living to die?”

The late music icons rapped about hate, crime, discrimination, hardship and oppression in our society. They protested against police brutality, and talked about fighting the “elusive monster”.

Amid loss of hope, the lyrics ended with: “…I would NEVER wish death on nobody! ’cause there ain’t no coming back from that.”

Truth be told, life has never been a bed of roses.

War, anger, jealousy, greed, lust, hate, wickedness, lies, selfishness, apathy, love of money and hopelessness is killing us all. But we can’t give up on life notwithstanding the harsh societal realities.

There’s something we can do to change the course of an uncertain afterlife if we understand that “we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it”.