Intelligence from Death and Bereavement [Video Inside]

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart" --Steve Jobs

Last month, we lost a colleague in a fatal road accident. The boy was barely 25...and was on his way to pick his graduation gown when he met his untimely death.

Naturally, everybody was thoroughly shaken and for a second, we were reminded of the fickleness of life. It is Casting Crowns who immortalized the scriptures by singing:

"I am a flower quickly fading,

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean

A vapor in the wind..."

The Legendary MacElvis

In quick succession, last Sunday my wife came to the sitting room looking shell-shocked! She gravely announced to me, "Mac Elvis is dead!" I was seriously taken aback. Mac Elvis is the young lad who was the "New Artist of the Year" in the last edition of the Olive Music Awards in Uganda.

Needless to say, most people in Christian circles in Kampala Uganda mourned the passing on of this young visionary. Most of us had our profiles in Social Media painted with Mac Elvis' photographs as we remembered him.

My wife actually hosted Mac Elvis and three other gospel artists in our house just about a year ago. Now he is no more.

What made me do this post however is this sobering move that I just did with my facebook coverpage. I just pulled down MacElvis photo...and with it replaced mine and my son.

As I did that, I just wondered...is that how a life is replaced? By few clicks of the mouse? Forgotten? Gone? Isn't that just sobering enough?

I have been bereaved once. It pained so hard. The toughest part for me when I lost a brother was when he was lowered into the ground. What finality that was. What a cruel separation. Reality dawned.

So, as I pull down Mac Elvis photo from my cover-page, I have to say the following:

• Everytime someone close passes on, it is not only time to mourn, but it is also time to seriously review and consider our lives.
• Everytime somoene we know passes on, it is time for us to come back to reality and know how fickle our lives are.
• Everytime someone passes on, it is time for us through the mirror of their lives, to look at our own and consider their greatest regrets...as well as ours right now.
• Everytime someone passes on, it is time for us to look at our lives and find out any loose end that needs to be tied before our time comes.
• Most importantly, every time someone passes on, it is time for us to consider whether we are living to the maximum potential of our lives at the moment.

This was MacElvis last project before he passed on in an accident in a swimming pool while on Mission in Tanzania: It simply says, "Do not Give Up" in Luganda. What a timely message to leave behind!

I believe that everytime we attend a funeral, we should not just be going through the motions of the ceremony, but also accepting this as another wake-up call. Of late however, I have seen how the human soul has become more and more numbed everytime someone passes on...we grieve for a week..and then we revert back to life as usual!

MacElvis taught my wife and I the virtue of determination and consistency. With that, we will be embarking on our unfinished projects and kickstart them back to life again.

R.I.P Mac Elvis