Negotiation

For every person diagnosed with an incurable and terminal disease, there is no negotiation, there is no option to get out.There is no alternative that they can accept.There is instead the slow and steady walk towards eternity.

Jesus Christ Just Judge (Marchela Dimitrova)

I have always been pretty good on my feet. In other words, I have been blessed with an ability to think of my feet and respond to things at short notice. I am usually able to negotiate what I would like to achieve and I can generally form a retort before the words are even out of the other person’s mouth.

Now – depending on who you are in relation to me – this could either be a wonderful asset or a terrible curse. I am pretty sure that my mother found this talent of mine troublesome as I was growing up, and I certainly know that my children struggle with this part of me, particularly when they are trying to get away with something…

And I have been reflecting on this ability of mine to negotiate.

You see, there are not many things in this world that cannot be negotiated. I can negotiate the amount that I pay for a thing. I can negotiate the time that I spend on a thing. I can negotiate the effort that I put into a thing. I can negotiate how I help others or do not help them. I can negotiate how I spend my time or do not spend it.

And I have been thinking about that, because there is one thing that I cannot negotiate and that is my life and my death – truly the only things that actually matter.

The other day in the news, I heard the tragic story of a family, whose youngest child (a 5 year old little boy) was hit by a car and died the same day. He had been having a lovely day out with his family and woke up that morning expecting that that day would be just like any other day. And yet – on that day – that little boy went to Heaven and left his family behind.

And there was nothing anyone could do to negotiate that. There was nothing anyone could do to work their way around that. There was nothing anyone could say that would change the outcome of the event.

For every person diagnosed with an incurable and terminal disease, there is no negotiation, there is no option to get out. There is no alternative that they can accept. There is instead the slow and steady walk towards eternity.

And once in eternity there is no negotiation in the afterlife. There is no way to talk my way through the final judgement. I cannot convince God – as a lawyer in a courtroom would – that there is some reasonable excuse for the sins that I have committed. When that time comes I will stand in front of the Just Judge and the Merciful Saviour and He will speak to me my own mind and my own sins. And I will stand in the presence of my God and know my soul through His eyes and heart.

And as I reflect on that today, I pray for the intercession of that little boy who died when he was hit by a car that day. Because I know that child stands before the Just Judge and Merciful Saviour, and I know he is in Heaven now. And I pray that one day he will welcome me there, when it is my turn to close my mouth and end all negotiations…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.