Would you want to know?

You may have heard about the book Machine of Death (edited by Wondermark's David Malki !, among others). It's definitely something ... different - a story about a machine that tells you how you are going to die. It sounds a little morbid, I admit, but I've read a few of the stories in the anthology and I think there is something to be learned from the idea.

Whether it's story about kids' basing their social status on their future demise or how this kind of knowledge affects a life insurance salesman, the stories in Machine of Death show us that there are some things that we shouldn't know.

Death is in God's hands, not ours, and we can't live our lives seeking to avoid it. When we see characters in books and movies making their lives about avoiding death, it only goes to show how much it dehumanizes them. Death is part of the human condition; thinking that we can somehow change that makes us do things that are entirely self-centered. I think of the, frankly, miserable people in movies like Final Destination and Saw.

On the other hand, there is self-sacrifice, like in Gran Turino or Man on Fire.

Being able to let go and trust in God is what allows us to truly live.

[You can download a free PDF copy of Machine of Death here.]