{"id":292,"date":"2014-05-02T12:57:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T16:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?p=292"},"modified":"2014-05-02T12:57:20","modified_gmt":"2014-05-02T16:57:20","slug":"die-in-your-sleep-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Die in your sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Where did we ever come up with the romantic notion that the best way to die is in our sleep? First things first, when it comes to dying, there really isn\u2019t a \u201cgood\u201d way to go. Why? Because you\u2019re dead! Dying in your sleep I believe comes with a lot of potential pitfalls.<\/p>\n<p>The first being if you die in your sleep, when do you first realize your dead? At least in a car accident you can see it coming! You scream throw up your hands, have your life pass before your eyes, and enter into the death place knowing how you got there. Dying in your sleep your never sure if you died and are in heaven OR you are dreaming and just when your excited about the prospect of seeing God, surprise. It was all a dream.<\/p>\n<p>The other problem with dying in your sleep is the inconvenience it puts on everyone else, especially if that \u201ceveryone else\u201d was sleeping next to you. Nothing starts the day off on the wrong foot like waking next to someone who is dead. Dead people are a pain in the butt. They expect you to do everything for them. They assume you are going to treat them tenderly and dignified yet they do nothing to assist us. When you\u2019re dead someone else has to dress you, which is really a challenge because they can\u2019t help push their arm through the jacket.<\/p>\n<p>We dress dead people in clothes so perhaps we should wear clothes to bed and then at least when you croak your ready to roll. Not to mention I find it difficult deciding which tie matches the suit we are going to bury you in. We dress people up to throw them in a hole and toss dirt on top! Why? Why aren\u2019t we buried in the same outfit we came in on? Talk about a waste of perfectly good suit or dress. I say we are buried \u201cau natural\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Some people leave gifts and memorials at the gravesite of a dearly departed. Maybe a teddy bear or a bottle of Jack Daniels depending on the type of person they were in life. These gestures by the way are touching only to those of us that can appreciate them, in other words the \u201cstill here\u201d folks.<\/p>\n<p>Notice too that these bottles and necklaces and teddy bears and handkerchiefs and what not always mysteriously vanish from the gravesite. In other words someone is leaving this tribute of love and someone else is stealing it and using it on theirs. Uh,\u00a0 eewww! Yeah, creepy just called, and even <i>he\u2019s <\/i>uncomfortable.<\/p>\n<p>Again the ultimate truth is that all the pomp and circumstances we go through for the dead is actually for the living. The dead person is long gone and aware only of where their eternal destiny is established. If they died in sins their arrival is bleak to say the least. If they committed their soul to Christ then they actually get to meet him and enter into eternal rest. That\u2019s why if they got there by falling off a cliff, it\u2019s actually comforting. They are sure they aren\u2019t dreaming and realize they are more awake now then they have ever experienced before. You on the other hand can keep your teddy bear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where did we ever come up with the romantic notion that the best way to die is in our sleep? First things first, when it comes to dying, there really isn\u2019t a \u201cgood\u201d way to go. Why? Because you\u2019re dead! Dying in your sleep I believe comes with a lot of potential pitfalls. The first&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[96],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","tag-black-humor-funeral-home"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Die in your sleep - God&#039;s Comic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Die in your sleep - God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where did we ever come up with the romantic notion that the best way to die is in our sleep? First things first, when it comes to dying, there really isn\u2019t a \u201cgood\u201d way to go. Why? Because you\u2019re dead! Dying in your sleep I believe comes with a lot of potential pitfalls. The first&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-02T16:57:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Stine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Die in your sleep - God&#039;s Comic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Die in your sleep - God&#039;s Comic","og_description":"Where did we ever come up with the romantic notion that the best way to die is in our sleep? First things first, when it comes to dying, there really isn\u2019t a \u201cgood\u201d way to go. Why? Because you\u2019re dead! Dying in your sleep I believe comes with a lot of potential pitfalls. The first&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html","og_site_name":"God&#039;s Comic","article_published_time":"2014-05-02T16:57:20+00:00","author":"Brad Stine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html","name":"Die in your sleep - God&#039;s Comic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-05-02T16:57:20+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-02T16:57:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/05\/die-in-your-sleep-3.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Die in your sleep"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/","name":"God&#039;s Comic","description":"God&#039;s Comic - Brad Stine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9","name":"Brad Stine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","caption":"Brad Stine"},"description":"\"Brad Stine is on a mission \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a mission to free us all from the chains of political correctness and prevent our eventual \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwussification.' From his Nashville stronghold, Stine is mounting his crusade against these hypocrisies, all of which are explored in his highly anticipated 4th album\/DVD, aptly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWUSSIFICATION!' \"You know what offends me?... Offended people,\" says Stine. A staunch supporter of first amendment rights and foe of political correctness, Stine asserts that rights should be universally applied. \"In a country with guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, its citizens are constantly trying to make faith in public spheres illegal, I am offended by that contradiction and want to talk about it as a comic.\" The strength of his conviction about our freedoms can be found in many places on WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from \"Merry Christmas Too!\" (the right to celebrate religion) to \"At Least We're Not France!\" (the responsibility to take action as a country) to \"Spank\" (the ability to discipline our children the way we see fit). What would cause the wussification of Brad Stine? \"I hope that nothing ever wussifies me to deny my own personal beliefs,\" he says. \"Brainwashed wussies have been taught that standing up for yourself and defending your personal point of view makes you a close-minded hate monger.\" Stine stops short of defending his point of view as the ONLY one, adding \"...one must also be respectful of dissenting belief while supporting their own.\" He is, after all, an inclusive figure who trains his comedy to attack ideas, not the people who embrace them. Stine's faith forces him to acknowledge the respect and dignity of all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even the wussies with whom he disagrees! Stine models his approach to comedy after legendary practitioners that he has known and loved over the years. Despite George Carlin's disdain for theistic beliefs, he has been a big influence on Stine. \"I always enjoyed Carlin for turning the tables on culture. He is an excellent writer that has endured for decades.\" More current comedic touchstones are Brian Reagan, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan and Monty Python, among others. Fear not, true believers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with his brand new album, Brad Stine is here to save the world from WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one politically-correct, offended person at a time!\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/author\/bstine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions\/293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}