More Than a Slow Ride in a Hearse

The recent hit song “Believe” by Brooks and Dunn featuring Jelly Roll offers a good summary of where a lot people are today. The song centers around an old man named Wrigley who lost his wife and baby while he was away serving in the war. The chorus of the song comes from the man’s response to the question, “How do you keep from going cray?”

He said, “I raise my hands
I bow my head
I’m findin’ more and more truth
At the words written in red
They tell me that there’s more to life
Than just what I can see, oh, I believe”

In response to learning of the man’s death, the song expresses an emotion I think is common for a lot of people today, at least in our corner of the world in North America with a growing number of former church members wrestling to keep some form of faith. They sing, “I can’t quote the book. Don’t know the chapter or the verse. You can’t tell me this all ends in a slow ride in a hearse.”

While you certainly don’t have to a regular church attender to think about death, death tends to make us all think about matters of eternity. You can’t tell me this is all there is. I don’t believe it all ends in a slow ride in a hearse. Maybe King Solomon was right in saying God placed eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Humans sure seem to have a stubborn awareness of something beyond this mortal existence. Life seems to be pointing somewhere.