{"id":65,"date":"2012-04-03T02:12:26","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T02:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/theroadyoureon\/?p=65"},"modified":"2012-04-03T02:12:26","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T02:12:26","slug":"if-i-should-die-before-i-wake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/theroadyoureon\/2012\/04\/if-i-should-die-before-i-wake.html","title":{"rendered":"If I should die before I wake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Each night before my children drift off to sleep, I pray with them.\u00a0 We voice a familiar prayer:<\/p>\n<p>Now I lay me down to sleep;<\/p>\n<p>I pray the Lord my soul to keep;<\/p>\n<p>If I should die before I wake;<\/p>\n<p>I pray the Lord my soul to take.<\/p>\n<p>Some may question this choice for my small children.\u00a0 In his book, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/As-Lay-Dying-Meditations-Returning\/dp\/0465049311\">As I Lay Dying<\/a>, Father Richard John Neuhaus recalls that he prayed this same prayer his whole life.\u00a0 When he became gravely ill, Neuhaus continued to pray this, and it became his urgent appeal.<\/p>\n<p>Generally we can avoid thinking about death until it touches someone we love or someone so similar to us that it reminds us that we too will die one day.\u00a0 We can be troubled over the deaths of millions overseas due to famine, tsunami, or genocide, but \u201cit is death in the singular,\u201d Neuhaus says, \u201cthat shatters all we thought we knew about death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This week we remember the most famous death in history, that of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 From the cross, Jesus knew his death loomed.\u00a0 He cried out, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/bible.cc\/luke\/23-46.htm\">Into your hands I commend my spirit.<\/a>\u201d\u00a0 Each night we can imitate Christ and commend our spirits as well.<\/p>\n<p>In the morning when we rise, our first thought can be gratitude that we have lived to see another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each night before my children drift off to sleep, I pray with them.\u00a0 We voice a familiar prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take. Some may question this choice for my&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":448,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,43,42],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-as-i-lay-dying","tag-prayer","tag-richard-john-neuhaus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>If I should die before I wake - The Road You&#039;re On<\/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\/theroadyoureon\/2012\/04\/if-i-should-die-before-i-wake.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If I should die before I wake - The Road You&#039;re On\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Each night before my children drift off to sleep, I pray with them.\u00a0 We voice a familiar prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take. Some may question this choice for my&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/theroadyoureon\/2012\/04\/if-i-should-die-before-i-wake.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Road You&#039;re On\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-03T02:12:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gayle Trotter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"If I should die before I wake - The Road You&#039;re On","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\/theroadyoureon\/2012\/04\/if-i-should-die-before-i-wake.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"If I should die before I wake - The Road You&#039;re On","og_description":"Each night before my children drift off to sleep, I pray with them.\u00a0 We voice a familiar prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take. 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