Five times a day my phone sends me a notification that most people would not say they want to get: You’re going to die. The notification comes from an app with the cynical name “We Croak.” It’s a simple app that does one thing – it sends you a notification that you are going to die, and then gives you an (inspirational?) quote about death.
The founders of the app tell us that it comes from a Bhutanese proverb: “To be a happy person, one must contemplate death five times daily.” I’ve been giving it a try for just a couple of days, so I can’t report on the results yet, but I will say that it has surprised me a couple of times. There amongst notifications of texts, the unfinished audio book, and social media pings is a stark reminder, “Don’t forget. You are going to die.”
Perhaps “We Croak” is a little too macabre for you, but even if so, it is not a bad reminder every now and then. Unless Jesus arrives on the clouds to usher in the Resurrection first, we are going to…well…croak. Such is the consequence of our sins. We are frail, finite, and fractured human beings. We can try to ignore those realities, or we can remind ourselves of them and see if that makes for an existential change in us. Either way, they don’t cease being realities.
Thankfully, there is another reality for us. Just as clearly as “We Croak” is a reality for us as humans, as followers of Christ, we are given the good news that we will rise and we will live. Our croaking won’t be the last word. In fact, there will be no last word, just an eternity of words uttered from our mouths and the mouths of all those who are found in Christ on that last day. We may croak, and it may be helpful to remember that, but we will also shout for joy as we raise out of our tombs and it is always good to remember that.