The Frailty of Life

I was chilled to read of the story of a bus passenger who was apparently randomly stabbed to death by a fellow passenger.  I actually picked up this story on my Blackberry reading myself to sleep a few days ago, and couldn't help but think of how this reflected the frailty of life. Naturally, my heart went out to the the family of the victim, Tim McLean.

Think about it, you're taking a bus and lean your head against the window as you listen to your iPod, slowly drifting into a well-needed nap.  You wake up to your last seconds of life screaming in agony as a deranged maniac repeatedly plunges a knife through your neck.  To top it off, your assailant proceeds to separate your head from the rest of your body.  Terrifying.

On many occasions I'll nod off on my train ride home from work, and the last thing I'm thinking about is whether my seat mate will pull a butcher knife from his or her briefcase and perform involuntary life-ending surgery on me as I'm listening to a podcast.  The story served as a reminder of the frailty of life and how death can lurk around the corner undetected.  To be clear, I'm not advocating that people should live on eggshells and update their obituary on a daily basis.  But there tends to be a state of mind that we have that lives outside of the reality of death.  People often life with a world view and perspective that is completely out of whack with the fact that (A) life is precious and (B) given that life is precious, we should treasure those things that are eternally important.

So as a Christian, it boggles my mind when people hear the gospel and respond to it with, "Eh, I'll deal with that when I'm older and I have time."  Wait a second, you've been told that you can have eternal life through Christ's death on the cross and be saved from the depths of hell, and you're going to put it on your "to-do" list twenty years down the line?  People need to realize that car accidents, aneurysms, plane crashes and even psychotic bus seat mates happen.

It never makes sense to put off something that has eternal ramifications with the presumption that you'll always live to the 77.8 years of average life expectancy of an American.  Look, I'd like to drive across the United States in an RV when I'm older, but if God calls me home early, I can live with the consequences of not having gone through that excursion.  The decision for Christ is slightly more weighty, I'd say.

On the other point, here's an example of the lack of perspective on life thing.  During a time of tragedy or every time an athlete is diagnosed or succumbs to a disease, sports journalists will use the "this really helps put our sport into perspective" line, and then pontificate for a minute or two around how in the big scheme of things, sports aren't that important and life is bigger than the Super Bowl and World Series.  

Here's a novel thought - why don't we always keep that perspective without the aid of people dying to remind us of it?  Hey, I love sports, and anyone who knows me will peg me as a big-time sports fanatic.  But even I recognize that the exposure to all things athletic gets a little over the top.

Another thought on the tragic incident.  The suspected perpetrator is Vince Weiguang Li, a 40-year old man who delivered newspapers and worked at McDonald's - not exactly the picture of the stereotypical Asian success story.  I couldn't help but read one reader comment which somehow found a connection between Li and Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter, arguing that the emotional repression of Asian culture leads to mental health problems and explosions of rage.   Not sure I'm buying that one.  What I will say is that the Canadian reader comments are tame compared to those of their American counterparts during the Virginia Tech shootings, where at least one user kept putting up posts about "BRING[ing] BACK THE GOOK EXCLUSION ACT!!!"  

How about those understanding Canadians, eh?