September 27, 2007
Consider the case of Carlos Camejo. His is one of those nightmare stories that seems too horrible to be true. Camejo is a Venezuelan man who had been declared dead but woke up in the morgue in excruciating pain after medical examiners began their autopsy on him. In this era of medical sophistication it truly stretches the imagination to conjure up an explanation for such a horrible mistake. And yet, in reality, Carlos Camejo has experienced a kind of resurrection.
Though the circumstances might not be as harrowing, most of us know something about resurrection, about life after death. When I was in seminary in the early 1970's an economic downturn hit Dallas and I lost my job when the company pulled out of the area. I wasn't worried because I knew I could get another one. Or so I thought. A year later my "downward mobility" had taken me from a nice apartment to a one room economy apartment and then to an undergraduate room at SMU with a roommate. I was horribly in debt, depressed, and still had no job. I thought I was finished and that I had no prospects of ever paying off my debts. And then came resurrection: a good job, debts paid within a year, and the ability to put $100 a month into a mutual fund. End of nightmare.
I could tell you even more personal stories about those times when I thought that the end had arrived prematurely: the horrible mistake I made in undergraduate school, the 30th birthday when I thought I was a failure, the deaths of my parents at relatively young ages. But I don't really need to tell my stories because you have your own. Life, for most of us, has written some tough chapters, and you know yours only too well. You also know that what seems like the end is always followed by new beginnings.
When you read the Bible you will find that the story of Jesus and the open tomb is only one of many resurrection stories. There was Abraham and Isaac, the story of Joseph sold into slavery, David and Goliath, the New Testament stories about the blind receiving sight, the lame walking again, lepers being healed, Lazarus rising from his deathbed. And as fantastic as some of those stories are, we know that they really do reflect the way life is.
If you are reading this I know you are not lying on a slab in some morgue with doctors preparing to cut you open. But you may feel like you are dead nevertheless. Take heart. Life really is about 2nd chances, about new opportunities, about hope rising out of the ashes. Life really is about resurrection. Just ask Carlos Camejo. Or better yet, consult your Bible. Don't give up because, quite likely, the best is yet to be.
