April 18, 2014

The Beneficiary

Earlier this week I received a call from a woman trying to locate my sister, Shelly, who passed away in 2009. It seems that a longtime friend listed her as the beneficiary on his life insurance policy. Since I am Shelly’s only survivor, the woman gave me the contact information for the insurance company and the policy number. After some research I finally sorted out the situation. Since Shelly is deceased and there was no contingency beneficiary, the policy reverts back to the deceased’s estate and will go into probate. Even though I had not asked the woman, or the insurance representative, the payout amount of the policy, that didn’t stop me from going on a mental spending spree. No doubt the Lord was doing an eye roll at my fleeting thoughts of inheriting something that didn’t belong to me. Unfortunately this same faulty thinking can be found on the religious landscape. A lot of people, who are expecting to inherit eternal life, will be shocked to see they are not listed as a beneficiary in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----Their plight is oddly different. Maybe they desire eternal existence and think they will inherit eternal life. But to receive eternal life, you have to desire it. Life is different from mere existence. It has a special process which involves care and effort for the proper benefit of everything and everybody good and right in the Lord’s sight. Many people think the eternal pleasure we will attain is the extraction of everything making them happy from endless resources. They don’t realize that life is as much being a resource as it is an extraction from a resource. And to love life is to love providing as much as being provided, with that special touch of what is right about it all. What can not inherit eternal life is this childish solipsism we learn in this present place of poverty. Far too many people think heaven is the wonderful place of plenty to feed all their own ambitions. Actually, that’s the other place of eternal existence.

Love you all,
Steve Corey