I know that is a bizarre blog title. But it fits. Especially after hearing about an app named WeCroak. Not that any of us really needs this, but apparently it helps to be reminded five times a day that you’re not getting out of here alive. The app developer proudly declares on the website that their mission is to help you “find happiness by contemplating your mortality.”
Now you’d think that the minds who created this app might get some pretty nasty mail. Or email. Or texts. But Hansa Bergwall, one of the cocreators of WeCroak, claims no complaints from the 130,000 people who have downloaded the app. Believe it or not, there are 80,000 who are active users! Yes…80,000 people need to be reminded five times a day that the Grim Reaper is holding their picture!
Bergwall knows this about his market: “People aren't going to try this unless they really want it. It's not something you accidentally download on your phone.” No, I guess not.
Benefits? The app WeCroak is credited with giving users a new life—so to speak. Like what? Like a daughter cherishing her last moments with her mother. There’s a young professional who has overcome a fear of public speaking. Bergwall cites a man trying to escape a life of opioid addiction.
My education on WeCroak came from the article, "How Tech Could Help Us Contemplate Our Own Mortality" by Emma Pattee. She lists other Internet sources that alert you to your final reality. You can find the day you’re going to die at Death Clock, predictor of death dates since 2006. And Life Clock, an app that counts down to your estimated death and cautions you about activities that might reduce your life span. Also Tikker—a watch that displays the time you have left.
Life amidst “the virus” has unfortunately brought new realities to the subject for many families. At the time of this writing, best calculations are that more than two million people have died from coronavirus related issues. That is a lot of grief to process.
And it’s because of this that so many people live in fear. Fear of socializing. Shopping. Working in an office. Going to school. Eating out. Fear of…death.
The truth is, a relatively low percentage of people who get the coronavirus die from it. But the fear of dying has paralyzed our society. With tremendous detriment.
My long time friend John Armstrong shared this worthwhile quote from Madeleine L’Engle in his most recent newsletter. It is worth contemplating. Madeleine was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young adult fiction.
“We are all going to die, and I suppose whether it is sooner or later makes little difference in eternity, for eternity is total is-ness, immediacy, now-ness. Living in eternity is, in fact, the way we are supposed to live all the time, right now, in the immediate moment not hanging on to the past, nor projecting into the future. The past is the rock that is under our feet, that enables us to push off from it and move into the future. But we don’t go bury ourselves in the past, nor should be worry too much about the future.”
The famed evangelist D.L. Moody said, “Death may be the King of terrors... but Jesus is the King of kings!”
And Jesus paid a “King's ransom” so that you need not fear heading into your next life! As it is written, “Since the children have flesh and blood, [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)
I don’t need an app to remind me of the reality of death. I need a Savior who can free me from the consequences. And I have one. His name begins with “J.”
That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.
You can find a number of YouTube episodes and podcasts of Mark’s program, Moving People Forward at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosyuBzdSh1mXIas_kGY2Aw?
For more information on the Elfstrand Group, please visit www.elfstrandgroup.com
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