Death that Brings Life

John 12:24 -Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Death is never easy. Those who are left behind to deal with the arrangements, the feelings and the day after will attest to this. My first encounter with death came on December 28, 1981. A phone call in the middle of the night informed my parents that my Grandmother had died suddenly in her sleep. In a frantic daze my dad woke us up and got us and my shocked mom into the car. A fast car trip and we arrived at my grandparents home. My grandmother was still in her bed. My Aunts were crying and my grandfather was trying to respond to the EMT and the Coroners questions. The week that followed was filled with arrangements and spending a lot of time at my grandparents home. I was not allowed to attend her funeral but this first experience with death established family patterns that would be observed every year for the next 12 years. My large extended family shrank a little more each year. 
Death does not necessarily mean the lose of life. Death could mean the lose of a job that you have spent you life at. It could include the lose of your spouse or the ideal marriage. It could be the lose of a goal or plans you had for your children. It could be the lose of a friendship that you had come to rely on. While these deaths don't always include the loss of a person they are still painful. In many regards we may not know what prompted the lose but that does not make it less painful. 
In John 12:24 we are given the hope that through death new life can spring forth. With that in mind ask yourself the question, What in my life needs to die so that new life can spring forth? Is it the death of what you always thought your life would be? But holding onto that dream is keeping you from enjoying what your life actually is. Is it the death of a relationship or aspects of the relationship that is keeping you from experiencing love and joy that God has for you. Maybe it is the "but we have always done things this way" that is keeping you from experiencing a new program that will bring the changes in your life God is looking for. When we refuse to allow death in our lives by holding onto those things that are comfortable and don't upset our world we are not giving new life, new love, new joy a chance to live in our lives. 
Death is never easy. It always involves giving up that which we hold dear. But through death we can experience new life. So ask God where you need to experience death.  Then be willing to let him work through your pain to bring about new life. It will be well worth your effort.