Sudden death does not exist. When we say of our friend, “He died suddenly in his sleep”, we are speaking what we believe to be the truth. But in fact it is not. Death does not happen all at once, but a little at a time. Our friends, and we ourselves, have been experiencing death from the day of our birth.

There is a constant wearing out; toys break, tires go flat, fan belts fray and light bulbs burn out. There is a constant slipping away; youthful waistlines disappear, hairlines recede, teeth decay and joints stiffen. There is increasing desertion; friends grow up and move away, families separate, parents die, spouses die.

Death does not happen all at once, but a little at a time. It’s called living.

So it’s easy to see how a person could transform fear of dying into fear of living.

Paul was the first to discover that living and dying are two sides of the same coin. He said, “Whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord’s.” I’m willing to bet that he made that discovery while watching Stephen’s face through a hail of rocks. The man was never more alive than when he was giving up his spirit.