If Heaven is so great, why do people get sad when they find out they're dying?

Question

Surely the reward of Heaven is more exciting that the idea of leaving your family is sad?
And yet people tend to concentrate more on the fact that they're leaving their families.
But if they truly believe they are going to be with their Father in Heaven they should be ecstatic...
Seems like sub-conscious doubt to me...

Wouldn't the love of God (for a true believer) be stronger than the love for one's family?
And therefore a dying person should be happy.

Answer 1

people made-up the idea of heaven b/c life on earth was "so poor, nasty, brutish and short"....need to have something to look forward to!!

its all garbage...there is no evidence for it other than hope and faith...me?? I plan to make good use of my time on earth

Answer 2

When some religious devouts die, they ARE ecstatic, finally going to God's kingdom in the sky, the place of eternal peace.

But hey, we're all human. When you panic, you forget all reason, and all you want to do is escape to safety.

My guess is that the same thing happens when you are dying. If you are dying in mortal pain or agony, or dying in a hospital bed of a fast and deadly disease, you will be scared. You will think of all the things that you haven't done, the people you haven't met, the children you haven't had. Religion will be the farthest thing from your mind at that point.

They say your life flashes in front of your eyes when you die, logically, I think that your unachievable future will flash before your eyes because you know that you are dying.

But with age also comes wisdom on death. If you are religious, when you are old and wise and you are nearing your dying day, you will be more at peace and content with the world than ever before. You will understand that all life must end and that you are just proceeding to the next journey. Heaven.

Although maybe I am contradicting myself, I think, if you die painfully, you are afraid, and if you die young, you are afraid because there are so many things you haven't done.

But if you are old, and you're dying of natural causes, you will be at peace. If you are old and dying of a disease I know not whether people will be happy, sad, or afraid.

I myself am Agnostic.

The dead cannot establish communique with us, so we will never know the reasons behind the fear, behind the happiness, or what is to come after death.

All I ask you to do is to live your life to the fullest!

I hope this helps!
Good Luck.

Answer 3

This is such a hard question to answer ! It would be so hard
for me to leave my family behind that I love with all my heart.
I wouldn't want them to be sad, it would pain me greatly.
And don't forget, even though I believe in God, there is also
the fear of the unknown. But for now, I am not thinking of death and going to heaven just yet.
This was an excellent question ! I am still not sure what I will do when my time comes, I would guess when it does happen, God will guide me.

Answer 4

Jesus Himself was afraid to die yet He did it out of theKindness of his Heart and was willing to sacrifice Himself for man even if it would cost HIm. Of course to know that you are about to die is perhaps the worst possible feeling ever. Yes many people do want to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die first. Why? Dying is just terrible and there is a chance you could go to Hell or Purgatory. But please know that if you read stories about saints and martyrs, these true believers, many were actually happy to die and sacrifice their lives although they were extremely afraid. Example: St. Maximilian Kolbe sacrificed his life for another prisoner with a family in Nazi Europe. He hate the idea of losing his life but did it out of pure charity and he felt God's love so strong in Him. The Nazis took Kolbe instead and executed him because he asked to take the other prisoner's place instead.
True believers put their faith in God and are ready to die for Him.

Plus, dying, again, is terrible! Would you wanna be chopped up by a chainsaw, fall of a cliff, be part of an explosion of a jet, etc.? An' know that you will be leaving those who you love behind?

But know that we can only experience true happiness if we experienced pain as well. If you just had a terrible day, and someone came over to you and gave out a compliment, that compliment would be so memorable and would matter so much to you. Therefore, if you never suffered you could never be happy.

PS b4 giving this a thumb's down, please make sure u read everything. okay?

Answer 5

Lets bring in a real world example. Let say you are going on a trip to some place far away you always wanted to go, Paris perhaps. You are very excited to go but you will be sad a leaving your family. Both happiness and sadness for those same reasons would be true of a dying Christian.

Answer 6

It's because your leaving behind all you ever knew, your family, friends. And not knowing for sure how things work on the other side can be scary, especially if you know perhaps your not ready.

I am ecstatic, I actually pray for him to take me now, but he keeps telling me my job is not done yet, so I ask him to take my young son too, but he tells me that he has plans for him too. But who knows, perhaps I too would be scare in them last minutes. The body is what is dying, not the spirit.... the body is weak, the spirit is strong. What most don't think about is, it's not the end of life, but the beginning of life for eternity.

Answer 7

Anything that has definite shape, will one day cease to exist, including you, me, Pope John Paul, and Mary-Jean Jim-bob.

All we know is life. If we leave that behind, we're sure we're going to miss the people we knew, and be missed by them. We don't want to make our loved ones sad, but it's unfortunate that it's going to happen. All we can hope is that the next generation of people we beget will do better than we did. And if we do our jobs there, then we don't have as much of a reason to be so sad... but that says nothing of those we leave behind.

Answer 8

I found out that my sister has cancer on Monday this week. I have been sad ever since. It is not a sadness that we do not live on, but a sadness that our time spent on earth may be coming to a close. Should that happen to me, then, yes, I would be happy in looking forward to my journey in heaven......but, also sad that everyone I love could not come with me, yet.

Answer 9

For alot of Christians, they know where they are going. They're sad because of their family. They are leaving their families behind in this World and they are going to a better place. There is Peace in Heaven. There will be no more tears, all JOY!
They wont be suffering anymore either.
I can't wait to die. I will get to see my Parents again and it depends if my husband goes before me or not. If he goes before me, then I know I will see him and I know that he will be waiting for me at he Pearly Gates.

Answer 10

Many people arnet Christains or reject and they will have a Huge surprise.
If they truely believe its the shock of losing a loved one believing there in heaven helps but it sure dont take away the pain.

Answer 11

Heaven is an abstract concept, as opposed to death, which is a concrete one, especially at the time of dying. It's much easier to attach emotional significance to something you have experience versus something you've only read about.