Monday, June 6, 2016

Post-Mortal Meetings

As I made my way to the bike shop, standing on my pedals the whole way, I wondered if I would ever have the opportunity to meet the guy who took my bicycle seat. I'm sure that, at final judgement, we'll be able, and forced, to review virtually every decision we've ever made. I wonder if we'll also see the consequences of our choices. I wonder if we'll see the people whose lives our actions affected. Just in case, I said a message to the guy who took my seat, in case he (or she) gets to see that message later.

Part of me thinks that the afterlife will be full of reunions like that. I think we will be able to meet the people whose lives we've touched or whose lives have touched ours. I currently have no idea who took my seat, and I'll probably never meet them in this life, but I hope I get to meet them in the afterlife. I'd like to give that person an opportunity to apologize to me, and I'd like to have an opportunity to forgive him or her in person. I think it'd be interesting to be able to connect over this shared experience and discuss our feelings about it. We may even become friends.

I have no idea whether any such connections will actually take place. I'm pretty sure we'll meet all our ancestors and descendants, but I haven't heard anything to indicate whether we'll meet anyone else or not. I think such meet-ups may foster spiritual growth,  but they haven't been confirmed as events that will actually take place. We may never be able to meet all the people who have touched our lives or whose lives we have touched, but it would be wise to live as if we would.

If such reunions do actually take place, I'll want them to be mostly positive experiences. I want people to be able to say that I had a positive impact on their lives. To facilitate that, I'm going to do good to the people I meet. I'll try to be kind, thoughtful, and helpful, just in case I run into those people again later down the line. We may never run into others again, at Final Judgement or anywhere else, but just in case we do, I'm going to try to make sure those end up being positive meetings. Having a positive influence on others' lives now may help prevent things from getting awkward later.

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