Yes, I confess, I have sung these lyrics, sometimes in my head, sometimes out loud, at different times of difficulty over the past three decades. I am referring to John Mellencamp's 1982 ballad of Jack and Diane; “Saying oh yeah, Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.” Admittedly, there were stretches for which I considered these words a fitting caption. I trust you, my reader, can identify with what I'm saying.
These words have never been more tempting to embrace than after the death of my dear companion. The problem is that technically, they are true. Life does go on for a sorrowing person after the life of their loved-one has terminated. The thrill of living is not what it used to be. Days seem longer and everyday actions are reduced to sheer mechanical movement. Chewing on food is no longer associated with the pleasure of eating, lying in bed becomes the act of storing your body for the night rather than an act of togetherness. So in actual fact, life does extend long after the previous thrill of living is gone. It is true.
To be honest, it is this absence of the enjoyment of ordinary life that is most hope-destroying. The temptation is to fold to the dread that this is the way the remainder of your life will be. That the thrill of living will never return. That food will never regain its flavour and that music will never stir wonderful emotions again. I was astounded at how antagonistic a foe this pall turned out to be. The thrill of living would clearly have to be besieged and taken over the longer haul, rather than expecting it to flit in through the front door one morning, coffee-in-hand.
At first, it is simply annoying when people keep assuring you that the thrill of living will return. A part of you doesn't want it to return because you don't want to lose sight of the magnitude of your loss. But as life goes on, moments begin to cast sparks on your pile of wet firewood. Here and there a little kindling smoulders for a few moments and dies. Yet the day arrives when you can truly say that you felt something! An emotion other than crushing sorrow has coughed and opened its sleeping eyes.
For those purchased by the blood of Christ, however, the thrill of living is astoundingly tenacious. That is because the people around us and the circumstances in which we live out our days are simply the context in which we live toward the full glory to come. For the child of God, living is not the experience of watching thrills pass by and disappear out-of-reach, it is the experience of living toward consuming eternal thrills. To lose sight of this with a battle-bloody face is to deliberately shun reality. Because you know, says Paul, that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58) New enthusiasm does begin to spark and grow. A fresh new life of usefulness begins to bloom; a life in which you appreciate the value of people in the eternal scheme, rather than their falsely perceived value in this life. Why go on? Because you are living toward another life; toward glory where life goes on long after the thrill of living with Christ has begun.
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