The Practice of Farewell in the Corona Era

A close friend was reportedly taken to the emergency room as he suffers breathing difficulties due to COVID-19 infection. He was also asked to pray so that he could find an oxygen tank which is absolutely necessary to maintain his breath. I was more shocked because he exercised regularly and played tennis and looked overly confident in regards to maintaining his health. As witnessing this, breathing itself seems to have never been so desperate in my life. It is a tragedy that if we do not enjoy the breathing properly as it was given by the Creator as a precious gift.

The reason why breathing is so desperate is because life ends as soon as we stop breathing even for a single moment. Many people are feeling death in a deep sense by experiencing COVID-19, which has been raging since last year.

Many of those infected with the virus had to die, so they were able to realize the extreme degree of fear. There is a pain that people couldn't hold hands of loved one's with the fear of getting infected by the virus while they dying in front of their eyes. How can we put words to the pain of being able to not hold a funeral properly but having to hurry away for the death of family members?

But we are experiencing the world of death every day through the sleep even though we just don't realize. Death is a word that stands opposite to life, and we feel that death and life are closely connected while living in the current COVID-19 situation.

Therefore, we need to be more serious about our lives, and we want to think more humbly about all the things we could normally enjoy. One thing that we can breathe without any inconvenience is the very fact for us to be thankful most. I hope that we can appreciate that it is not a coincidence that we can wake up from the sleep of death and start another life every day.

Our humanity has experienced many dangerous crises in the past due to various epidemic diseases. Historically, the epidemic has evolved from the Black Death of the Middle Ages to tuberculosis, measles, swine flu, SARS, Ebola, MERS, and now COVID-19. 

In proportion to this, the fatality rate of the virus, which causes death, is increasingly alarming. What is clear, however, is that the development of these infectious diseases in the future would never stop. We can think of ourselves as a helpless being dragged around the danger of a deadly epidemic.

For that reason, it has become our daily routine to wear a mask and keep the distance while enduring all kinds of inconveniences. It was not awkward to be trapped in a partition and watch people lecture and preach while wearing a mask. It will no longer be easy to see scenes of eating together between family members and close friends. There are many people who have not been able to go out of their homes all year long. When they went out, they had to pay attention to avoid people who didn't wear masks.

Personally, I'm practicing farewell whenever I have time while spending this Corona situation. The idea is to organize my life and achieve a life that is remembered by people around me so that things I regret do not happen in my life.

Before facing unexpected difficulties in my life journey, I would like to make a commitment to organize and complete the relationships with myself as well as the surroundings. No matter how wicked a person is, he will look back on his life at least once when the time of death comes.

So why don't you practice farewell for your soul before you leave the world without a hitch? We should be able to control the pace and find the freedom to look back on ourselves in the journey of life that we have been running too hard. In other words, we should show love and interest to people around and achieve a life without shame. If anyone has lived a stubborn life relying only on himself, it's time to think of a Savior in his life and call His name even once.